Scientists say they recently captured “supergiant” deep-sea crustaceans nearly a foot long – the likes of which have rarely been seen – in an ocean trench off New Zealand.
The seven amphipods measure about 28 centimeters (about 11 inches) long, which is 10 times the length of normal deep-sea amphipods and nearly three times the size of what are considered giant amphipods, Scotland’s University of Aberdeen said Thursday.
They are the biggest whole specimens of supergiants ever recorded, according to the university.
The team’s deep-sea cameras also caught footage of a supergiant that scientists estimated was about 34 centimeters (13 inches) long.
Though the creatures may remind observers of shrimp, amphipods are an order apart.
Scientists with the university and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research were looking for deep-sea snailfish when a trap made the unexpected catch.
“(After) the traps came on deck … I stopped and thought, ‘What on Earth is that?’ whilst catching a glimpse of an amphipod far bigger than I ever though possible,” the voyage’s leader, Alan Jamieson of the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, said in a news release. “It’s a bit like finding a footlong cockroach.”
The capture was made about 7 kilometers (more than 4 miles) below the surface, the deepest point that supergiants have been found, the university said.
Supergiants were found a few times off Hawaii in the 1970s and 1980s but haven’t been reported since, according to the university.
The scientists will now try to determine whether the species they caught are the same as those found off Hawaii decades ago.
December 2011: Giant cannibal shrimp worry Gulf Coast watchers
October 2010: New fish species found deep below ocean surface
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I do love shrimp but something about this icks me out. And isnt this one of the more common oxymorons? Giant shrimp?
That TOTALLY wierds me out also and I LOVE shrimp.......ewwww
Yes, that would be a great oxymoron if only "shrimp" meant small...
I'm glad I'm not the only one creeped out by this thing. I too LOVE shrimp. This makes me shudder.
Lol. That thing gives me the creeps too!
Yep, you'd definitely want to de-vein (de-turd) those bad boys before eating them...
I wouldn't eat that for nothing! Looks like Osama's brain!
Wow, put the pipe down, I think you have had enough for the day.
Put the damned thing back and leave them alone. You don't have to eat everything on the planet humans. You fat arses can let something live in peace without putting catchup on it and sticking it on a bun. Go eat grease at the in out burger fat arse american fools.
great! let's overfish them to extinction!
Enough already....Tell us how they taste!
I thought that was Bobby Flay in the picture at first.
I thought it was Charlie Sheen
Another animal for man to eventually make extinct.
I'd like to know how they taste also, but from that depth, I suspect the only thing you'd taste would be sulfur.
"The scientists will now try to determine whether the species they caught are the same as those found off Hawaii decades ago" .... and whether, with this latest find good 'n dead, the species is now extinct
They trapped 7 specimins. That's it, they are overfished and extinct. No species can handle a massacre like that.
looks nassy.......we'll probably fish them into extinction.....
Shrimp and lobster are in the same family as cicadas and locusts. Yes, they're sea bugs.
Look at it, put it back, leave it alone.
There has to be a place for science.
Quick someone give that dude a skillet, garlic and stick of butter!!!