Researchers from Curtin University in Australia sampled more than 1,700 liters of seawater taken at various depths from the steep underwater canyons off the Ningaloo Coast. They found traces of the world record holder for the deepest diving mammal, Cuvier\u2019s beaked whale, as well as the seldom seen pygmy sperm whale. They also detected several animals that weren\u2019t known to venture into Western Australia\u2019s waters, including the massive sleeper shark, the peculiar-looking faceless cusk eel, and the enigmatic slender snaggletooth.<\/p>\n
Read more: \u201cThe Mystery of the Largest Light in the Sea<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n But their most dramatic find was DNA from the giant squid, Architeuthis dux. These immense cephalopods can grow up to 16 feet long and have eyes the size of dinner plates. Still, despite being so large and fairly ubiquitous in the oceans, they\u2019re rarely seen. \u201cThis is the first record of a giant squid detected off Western Australia\u2019s coast using eDNA protocols and the northernmost record of A. dux in the eastern Indian Ocean,\u201d study author Lisa Kirkendale told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n Altogether the team detected 226 species spanning 126 families, but what\u2019s even more intriguing was that some of the DNA didn\u2019t match any known ocean life. \u201cWe found a large number of species that don\u2019t neatly match anything currently recorded, which doesn\u2019t automatically mean they\u2019re new to science, but it strongly suggests there is a vast amount of deep\u2011sea biodiversity we\u2019re only just beginning to uncover,\u201d study co-author Georgia Nester said.<\/p>\n We may only be scratching the surface of what lies beneath. Enjoying Nautilus<\/a>? Subscribe to our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lead image: Mgiganteus1 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know about what lives beneath the oceans, and studying life there can prove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-945076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116536526065199262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/nautilus-favicon-14.png\")
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