These newly discovered snailfish snails have become our last obsession

The deep sea houses some of the strangest creatures of the earth, from the fish of the ghostly elder to the sponges of the carnivorous harp. Sometimes scientists discover more humble creatures that are so tiny that they go unnoticed until the new technology puts them in sight.

Such efforts rarely disappoint. Using an underwater robot camera, the researchers discovered three new species of snail on the high seas: a bump, a dark and an elegant. In a new article published in Ichtyology and Herpetology, researchers explain how CT scans and DNA sequencing revealed that the three fish had characteristics unlike all other known species, confirming their novelty.

“Our discovery of not one, but three, new species of snails is a reminder of how much we have not yet learned about life on earth and the power of curiosity and exploration,” said Mackenzie Gerringer, principal of the study and marine scientist to Suny Geneseo, in a press release.

Some free snail anecdotes

Snails are charming but funky creatures. Although the characteristics vary between the 400 known species, they are generally small, in the shape of a tadpole and sport large heads of jelly. A disc on their belly allows them to stick to the seabed or to “do hitchhiking on larger animals”, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

“They come in beautiful colors,” said the New York Times Johanna Weston, an ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “They also have a nice little smile on their face.”

The snails that live in shallow waters will curb against rocks or algae like snails, like their homonym. Snails in the trenches on the high seas, on the other hand, are more difficult to find, although a snail holds the deepest fish record.

Meet the new snail

The three species were discovered for the first time in 2019 on two expeditions off the coast of Central California. The explorer of Mbari underwater robots found the Escargot Backfish swimming at a depth of 10,722 feet (3,268 meters). The dark and elegant snail, on the other hand, swam even deeper, about 13,451 feet (4,100 meters). The robot captured one of each species, bringing them carefully to the laboratory for analysis.

The bumpy snail (Careprotus colliculi) is pink and round but bumpy all around, while the dark snails (Careprotus yanceyi) is entirely black with a round head and a horizontal mouth. Unlike these two, the elegant snail (Paraliparis in) has a long “side compressed body” and an inclined jaw.

Scientists do not yet know how common these species are, but so far, it seems that the maunty snail is the rarest. This particular meeting with bumpy snails is the only confirmed observation in the species, the researchers said. The intention is to continue to seek more to understand the geographic distribution of these species. I hope it will not be the last time we meet these creatures.