A new small blue snailfish is changing our understanding of the world's deepest fishes.<br /><br />In 2018, an international team of scientists studied the Atacama Trench, an expansive trench that runs along the west coast of South America as a deep underwater valley that mirrors the Andes Mountains.<br /><br />The team, including Newcastle University scientists, deployed free-falling landers to sample the sparse deep-sea creatures around cameras and traps with bait. Two lander systems from Newcastle University recorded three types of hadal snailfish and one of them was not like the others. <br /><br />The small blue fish, seen from about 6,000 to 7,600 m deep, doesn't look like other hadal snailfish. With large eyes and striking colour, it resembles other species of snailfishes that are found living in much shallower waters. <br /><br />The team used a 3D x-ray technique called microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) and DNA barcoding to see where the new species fit within the snailfish family.<br /><br />
