Weird Deep-Sea Creatures Found in Atlantic

With a fearsome grin fit for a movie monster, this viperfish is a real-life predator that lurks in one of the world's most remote locations.

An international team of 31 researchers found this and other strange animals while exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an underwater mountain range that runs from Iceland to the Azores islands west of Portugal

Over the course of five weeks, the team cataloged a host of exotic worms, colorful corals, unusual sea cucumbers, and weird fish. Clearly, viperfish has plenty to eat.

Many of the species found on the ridge are rare and had only been discovered in recent years, scientists said. At least one species found during the survey—a tiny crustacean called a seed shrimp—is thought to be new to science.

"It was like going to a new country," said expedition leader Monty Priede of Britain's University of Aberdeen.

The survey was coordinated by the Norway-based MAR-ECO project and the Census of Marine Life program.

Despite its delicate, decorated appearance, this jewel squid was found 1,650 lung-crushing feet (500 meters) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic.

Scientists on a recent deep-sea expedition found the squid, called Histioteuthis, along with an abundance of other species thought to be very rare, if not unknown, elsewhere.

Jewel squid are known for their mismatched eyes, one of which is larger than the other to scope for prey in the deep's darkness.

With its polka-dot mantle and cartoonish expression, this glass squid brings out a lighter side of the inky ocean deep.

Scientists found the squid and other species while mapping more than 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of an undersea mountain range in the North Atlantic.

Until now the region had scarcely been explored because of its remoteness and depth. But the new survey shows that the ridge is teeming with life, said Monty Priede, expedition leader and director of the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab research center.

"The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is roughly equivalent in size to the European Alps and is one of the largest areas of habitat available in the ocean," Priede said.

In an ironic strategy for survival, a tiny shrimplike creature called an amphipod shows everything it has, inside and out, in an attempt to disappear.

The unusual animal, called Phronima, is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic.

Many small deep-sea creatures are transparent, or nearly so, to better camouflage themselves in their murky surroundings, scientists say.

Largest Flying Bird Could Barely Get off Ground, Fossils Show

The largest bird that ever flew was an expert glider but was too heavy to fly by flapping its wings, researchers say.

Getting off the ground was a challenge for the 155-pound (70-kilogram) Argentavis magnificens, a condor-like bird that lived in the Andes mountains and the pampas of Argentina about six million years ago.

Despite its massive flight muscles and 21-foot (6.4-meter) wingspan, the giant bird probably could not generate enough lift to take off from a level surface, according to a new study.

Like human hang gliders, Argentavis probably had to run downhill into a headwind to become airborne, said Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

"Takeoff capability is the limiting factor for the size of flying birds, and Argentavis almost reached the upper limit," Chatterjee said.

"Heavier birds such as the ostrich had to give up flight."

Once aloft, however, Arentavis was no ostrich. Despite weighing as much as 16 bald eagles, Chatterjee said, "it was an excellent glider, like a sail plane."
Riding the Winds

The new understanding of Argentavis flight comes from an unusual collaboration between paleontologists and a retired aeronautical engineer.

The researchers took measurements from Argentavis fossils and then conducted their analysis using a computer program designed to study flight performance in helicopters.

"Birds are commonly compared with aircraft, but in reality helicopters are a better analogy," Chatterjee said.
Unlike engine-powered airplanes, he noted, birds rely on their wings for both forward thrust and vertical lift, the two components necessary for flight.

Although Argentavis could not wing skyward on its own, the researchers say, it could have reached high altitudes by riding winds deflected upward over mountains.
More commonly, particularly in open terrain, Argentavis probably gained elevation by circling inside rising columns of warm air, known as thermals.

The huge flyer may have traveled hundreds of miles by repeatedly riding thermal "elevators" and then soaring gradually back to earth, Chatterjee said.

Some of the largest flying birds today, such as condors and eagles, pursue a similar strategy. Although capable of powered flight, these species save energy by letting air currents do most of the work required to gain altitude.

Lifestyle Alternatives

In the past, researchers have disagreed as to whether Argentavis was a predator, like most hawks and eagles, or a scavenger.

Chatterjee and co-author Kenneth Campbell, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, say fossil details indicate the species was an active predator.

"[The birds' skull] was adapted for catching prey and swallowing it whole," Campbell said.

"Its jaw mechanics were not suited for tearing flesh from carcasses, as in vultures, nor for tearing prey animals apart for swallowing, as in eagles and owls."

But Paul Palmqvist, of the University of Malaga in Spain, has argued that a flying species as large as Argentavis must have been a scavenger.

Palmqvist's argument is based in part on a predictable relationship between body size and foraging area seen in predatory hawks and eagles today.

Given its huge size, Palmqvist says, a predatory Argentavis would not have been able to cover enough ground and locate enough prey to meet its daily needs.

"A vulturelike behavior is more reasonable, as vultures have smaller range areas," Palmqvist said. "Carrion is more available than living flesh."

The new flight analysis, he said, also tends to support his view.

"Given its lack of maneuverability, a predator this size would have a problem landing on its prey," Palmqvist noted.

But Chatterjee and Campbell said the species was certainly a capable enough flyer to attack live prey—probably rabbit-size mammals—from the air.