Scientists Discover 4cm Crustacean Genus at 8,000 Meters in Atacama Trench

1 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 29

Four specimens collected near 8,000 meters in the Atacama Trench have been identified as Dulcibella camanchaca, a newly described crustacean predator and an entirely new genus.
Genomic testing and morphology confirmed the find, with researchers saying it strengthens evidence that the trench is an endemic hotspot for previously unknown hadal life.
The roughly 4-centimeter animal uses raptorial appendages to seize smaller crustaceans and survives pressures about 800 times stronger than those at the surface.
The specimens came from a 2023 deep-ocean survey off northern Chile by the Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía, with the study later published in Systematics and Biodiversity.
The discovery adds to growing scientific interest in the Atacama, a 6,000-kilometer trench off Peru and Chile that researchers see as a promising frontier for deep-ocean exploration.