Between Mexico and Hawaii, at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, lies the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. This abyssal plain sprawls over 2.3 million square miles, over half the size of the contiguous U.S., and plunges to depths exceeding 3 miles in some places. The water here is just above freezing,and no sunlight reaches it. Yet for thousands of species that scientists know almost nothing about, the strange landscape is a happy home — for now.
The creatures in the CCZ are nothing short of bizarre: long-tentacled creatures that resemble shooting stars, bristly worms that look like they’re made of ice crystals, and a sea cucumber nicknamed “the gummy squirrel” because of its translucent, candy-yellow color and tail-like sail. Each represents a tiny fraction of the 5,142 unnamed species announced in May in the journal Current Biology.
There are a few key caveats to that number — some of those unidentified creatures ...
