MORE SPECIES LURK IN THE DEPTHS
Oh, yes.
Marine ecologists have predicted there could be as many as 18 unknown species, with body lengths greater than 1.8 metres, still swimming in the great expanses of unexplored sea.
Using statistical modelling, they measured the rate at which new large sea creatures have been discovered since 1830 and found that the rate of discovery is still going strong, with new species being found every year.
...
Dr Charles Paxton, a fisheries statistician at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, said: "There are plenty of places these creatures could be hiding.
"They may spend their lives in the middle layers of the oceans and never surface or be in the deep sea canyons yet to be visited, and new discoveries are being made all the time under the Arctic ice cap."
...
One of the least understood parts of the ocean is actually the midlayers, known as the twilight zone, between 100 and 1000 metres down.
Emphasis mine. |
