City scientists make deep sea discovery (From Daily Echo)

University of Southampton scientists make deep sea creature discovery

12:02pm Wednesday 28th December 2011 in Education By Matt Smith, Politics and business reporter

SEA creatures previously unknown to science have been discovered by Southampton University researchers.

The creatures, including yeti crabs, scaly-foot snails and sea cucumbers, were filmed by an underwater robot around underwater volcanic vents in the Indian Ocean.

A team from the University of Southampton had been surveying life around the super-heated waters of fissures in the ocean floor, called black smokers, where the Earth’s tectonic plates are slowly moving apart.

They believe some of the species they found on the South West Indian Ridge, some 800 miles off the east coast of South Africa, may be new to science.

Dr Jon Copley, a deep-sea biologist from the university and chief scientist of the Indian Ocean vents project, said it was “a big surprise” to find some creatures that were not known from similar Indian Ocean vents or those in the Atlantic.

The vents in the South West Indian Ridge were first discovered by a Chinese expedition in 2007 but the Southampton researchers, Dr Copley and PhD student Leigh Marsh, were the first to document the creatures that live there.

They sent a remote-operated underwater robot down 2,400m to film life around the vents, controlled from the deck of the Southampton-based research vessel James Cook.

Dr Copley said they found themselves in a maze of mineral spires, 20m tall, with hot black liquid gushing up from the volcanic fissures.

Some of the snails, shrimp, mussels, sea cucumbers and crabs they found lurking in the depths were similar to others found in neighbouring areas.

“We also found types of creature we didn’t know, which was very exciting,” said Dr Copley.

“One was a type of yeti crab. These particularly hairy crabs we found were four or five inches long. They’ve got these amazing bristles covering their bellies. We’ve seen similar types of animals at vents in the eastern Pacific but these were different and it’s the first time they’ve been seen in the Indian Ocean.”

He said pale, snake like sea cucumbers, a relation of the sea star, that were also found, are thought to be new to the Indian Ocean vents. Sea cucumbers are only previously known from vents in the Pacific.

“You never know what you are going to find.

“We made some predications but we were very surprised,” Dr Copley said.

The researchers were investigating how life evolves in the deep oceans and moves between the super hot zones around the vents, which have short lives.

Some of the creatures were extracted by the robot and will be brought back to the lab for DNA profiling over the coming months.

However there are concerns some of the species could be disturbed by the hunt for the vent’s rich minerals.

Although they are in international waters China has been granted an exploratory licence by the United Nations established International Seabed Authority to explore their potential for mining.

Meanwhile after five months at sea Dr Copley will now spend the next year analysing his findings before setting sail to the Caribbean in 2013 to explore the world’s deepest volcanic vents.

Click here to read more about Dr Copley's scientific expeditions exploring deep-sea volcanic vents.