When an iceberg the size of Chicago erupted the ice cap of the Antarctic Peninsula earlier this year, scientists on board the Falkor (also) The research vessel felt obliged to see what lived below.
Schmidt Ocean Institute researchers were the first humans to explore this hidden world – and using their vehicle remotely (ROV) SubstastianThey made remarkable discoveries.
Corals and sponges, ghosts, frozen fish, huge sea spiders and octopus have all been found in deep waters. The team also recorded the very first sequence of a glacial glass calmar (Galiteuthis glacialis).
Glacial glass squid: how it was found
The deep sea expert, Dr. Thom Linley, from the New Zealand Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, looked at the ROV images from the ship’s control room when he spotted Calmar.
The observation was then confirmed as a freezing glass calmar by Dr. Aaron Evans, an expert from the glass calman family.
In the video, which was recorded at 687 meters (2254 feet), the Cammar can be seen by positioning its arms above its head, a bit like the pose of pacco-” commonly observed in other glass calmars.
Calmars in juvenile glacial glass are similar to juvenile calmars, explains Dr. Evans. They both have transparent bodies and sharp hooks at the end of their two longer tentacles. The main difference is that colossal calmar has hooks in the middle of their eight arms.
The Rov Substastian captured the first confirmed images of at least five species of calmar in the wild, including the calmar of the horn of Aries (Spirule Spirule) In 2020, the Promachoteuthis in 2024, and colossal calmar (Mesonychotuthis Hamiltoni) in 2025.
Image and video credit: Galiteuthis Glacialis. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute
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