'Communities' of extreme life seen for first time in deep ocean

Summary

'Communities' of strange, extreme life seen for first time in deep oceanVictoria GillScience correspondent, BBC NewsWatch: some of the strange, extreme life filmed at the depths of the oceanBeds of clams, mats of bacteria that look like ice and fields of tube worms - these are just some examples of the strange, extreme life that an expedition to the deepest parts of the ocean has observed, filmed and photographed.Diving in a human-occupied submersible to ocean trenches in the northwest Pacific Ocean, a Chinese-led research team captured pictures of life at depths of more than 9km (5.6miles).The deepest marine vertebrate life filmed before this expedition was at 8,336m - a snailfish that was filmed swimming in a deep ocean trench off the coast of Japan in 2023.These new observations are published in the journal Nature. IDSSE/CASThe scientists photographed what looked like fields of long, thin tube wormsIDSSE/CASThe white, spiky creatures are called Macellicephaloides grandicirra. Here they are photographed in dense colonies of tube worms that can be up to 30cm in lengthAlthough it was accepted among marine scientists that there would be life at these depths, scientists on this mission say the abundance of animals they saw from the windows of their submersible was "amazing".The scientific expedition covered more than 2,500km - exploring trenches at depths ranging from 5,800 to 9,533m.Researchers travelled in a submersible vehicle called Fendouzhe, which can operate at depths of more than 10km for several hours at a time.The team, led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering, discovered what they describe as "thriving communities" of creatures.IDSSE/CASThe researchers created this composite image of their submersible in a deep ocean trench "It's exciting - especially for a deep sea scientist - to go to a place that human beings have not explored," one of the lead researchers, Dr Xiaotong Peng, told BBC News. "It...