Alien-Like Predator Discovered 8,000 m Deep in the Atacama Trench — A New Species and Genus

New deep-sea predator found in one of Earth's deepest trenches

The Atacama (Peru–Chile) Trench, one of the planet's deepest marine regions, has yielded a surprising discovery: a previously unknown crustacean predator living nearly 8,000 meters below the sea surface. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Universidad de Concepción in Chile report that genomic and morphological analyses identify the animal as both a new species and a new genus.

Discovery and scientific verification

During a 2023 deep-ocean survey led by the Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía (IMO) at Universidad de Concepción aboard the research vessel Abate Molina, scientists collected four specimens from roughly 8,000 meters depth—well inside the Hadal zone. The specimens were preserved by freezing and later underwent detailed morphological study and genomic sequencing. The results, published in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity, confirmed that this crustacean is novel at both the species and genus levels.

Meet Dulcibella camanchaca

The animal has been named Dulcibella camanchaca. The specific epithet references terms for darkness used by Indigenous Andean communities, reflecting the species' life in perpetual night beneath the aphotic zone. At about four centimeters long, D. camanchaca has a pale, almost ghostly carapace and uses raptorial appendages to grab and clamp onto smaller crustaceans—an effective predatory adaptation in a food-scarce environment.

'Most excitingly, the DNA and morphology data pointed to this species being a new genus too, emphasizing the Atacama Trench as an endemic hotspot,' said Johanna Weston, lead author and Hadal-zone specialist at WHOI.

Extreme adaptations and scientific significance

Despite its small size, this predator withstands enormous pressures—on the order of hundreds of times the atmospheric pressure at the surface—showing remarkable physiological resilience. The discovery highlights the Atacama Trench as an understudied, biologically rich environment where unique lineages may have evolved in isolation.

'This finding underlines the importance of continued deep-ocean exploration, particularly in Chile's front yard,' said Carolina González of IMO, co-lead author of the study. 'More discoveries are expected as we continue to study the Atacama Trench.'

Broader context

The find also offers perspective on the search for life beyond Earth: just as missions like NASA's Europa Clipper (launched October 14, 2024) will probe the subsurface ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa, Earth's deepest oceans remind us how much remains unknown about life in extreme, dark, high-pressure aquatic environments.

Reference: The discovery and formal description appear in Systematics and Biodiversity. The research team included scientists from WHOI and Universidad de Concepción, with fieldwork conducted by IMO aboard the Abate Molina.