Paraliparis selti, or the Blue Atacama snailfish, lives in the hadal zone (waters deeper than 6,000 m) of the Atacama Trench in southeast Pacific Ocean.
Snailfishes are members of Liparidae, a diverse family of over 400 fish species found in every ocean.
They hold the widest known bathymetric range of any vertebrate family, from the intertidal to the deep trenches.
At least 200 snailfish species are present in the southern hemisphere, and of those, about 150 species are known from the Subantarctic and Antarctic waters.
Only six genera and around 20 species are known from the eastern Pacific off the west coast of South America.
Snailfishes are exceptionally well-adapted to the hadal environment, which is characterized by low temperature (1-3 degrees Celsius), extremely high pressure, and seismic activity.
Between 6,000 to 8,143 m, they dominate the hadal ichthyofauna in at least 10 trenches worldwide.
“They are not at all what we expect from a deep-sea fish. I love to show people that the world’s deepest fishes are actually pretty cute,” said Dr. Thomas Linley, a researcher at Newcastle University.
The only specimen of Paraliparis selti was collected from 6,714 m depth by a baited trap in the Atacama Trench, southeast Pacific Ocean.
“Paraliparis selti doesn’t look like other snailfishes from the hadal zone, these ultradeep regions of the oceans,” Dr. Linley said.
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https://www.sci.news/biology/paralipari ... 11291.html