Giant, Unknown Animals Found off Antarctica

by Tony Bishop on April 1, 2008

daggertooth

This 19-inch-long (50-centimetre-long) daggertooth sports a striking iridescent body and sapphire blue eyes. The animal uses its long mouth and forward-curved teeth immobilize prey, clamping down and pulling back to tear through and paralyze the victim’s spine. An Antarctic neighbour of the predatory stareater, this fish is one of the southernmost daggertooths ever caught, said New Zealand scientists who captured it during a marine census in early 2008.

New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and other researchers collected 30,000 sea creatures—many new to science—during a 35-day census in Antarctic waters in February and March.

The large-scale survey was part of the International Polar Year and Census of Antarctic Marine Life programs, which study the diversity of Antarctic marine life.

National Geographic Pictures of Antarctic Creatures has pictures of just a few of these bizarre creatures.

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