ANIMAL LIFE OF THE DEEP SEA BOTTOM 



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'Sea-snails' (Liparidae)^"^^ 6,660 metres, the second 

 deepest known occurrence of fish. Length 28 centimetres. 

 Below, view from the ventral side, showing the fused 

 ventral fins as a small sucking-disk. 



This comes out most clearly, perhaps, if we look at the fishes, which 

 in a way were a disappointment, inasmuch as we failed to beat our own 

 record from the Sunda Trench, of the fish caught at 7,130 metres. Here 

 at depths beyond 6,000 metres, we obtained only one species, a new 

 "sea-snail", or liparid fish, in five specimens (Fig. above). Prince Albert 

 of Monaco held the depth record of 6,035 rnetres for half a century; 

 these sea-snails from 6,670 metres and the brotulid from the Sunda 

 Trench are now the only catches made at appreciably lower depths. A 

 good many fishes have been known from between 5,000 and 6,000 

 metres from earlier expeditions, and in a trawl at 5,900 metres we also 

 caught 10 bottom-dwelling fishes belonging to four different species. 

 Taking the four trawls between 4,520 and 5,900 metres together, we 

 get a total of 34 bottom fishes belonging to 13 species. The picture given 

 by this is so clear that there is no need to pursue this examination further 

 by taking lesser depths. 



Let me make one further point. Among the many fishes which we 

 caught — rat-tails, brotulids, deep-sea eels, and ray-fins (Bathypterois) 

 — there were, in addition to the new sea-snail, a few other new species, 

 one of which is so different from all other fishes that perhaps it should 

 be classed as a new famih'. Alongside the fishes, most large groups of inver- 

 tebrate marine animals were represented. We have not yet worked out 

 the final figure, but there were so many zoologists on board that we were 

 able to make a fairly reliable survey of the number of various bottom 

 animals which we caught in this region, and at the same time correlate 

 them with their depth distribution. 



One thing was striking: crustaceans accounted for about a third of 



