Scientists working in the Antarctic have discovered a creature "like nothing seen before" 3,500 meters under the ice.

Expedition Antarctica set off on a 50-day exhibition of the Southern Ocean to learn more about its seabed earlier this year, and it's safe to say that their efforts have not been vain.

They shared their journey on YouTube in a documentary entitled, The Secrets of Antarctica, which reveals everything they've discovered so far: 

However, one discovery stood out more than most: a strange creature that has yet to be named.

The narrator explained: "Having braved ice storms, broken equipment and rough seas for almost two months, the team braces itself for the most high-pressured assignment of them all.

"They will delve 3,500 meters into the abyssal plain, a depth almost as high as the Swiss Alps.

"It will endure 300 times more pressure than we experience every day.

"Suddenly the abyssal plain reveals itself, it looks barren, like the surface of Mars, but a closer look reveals life that no one has ever witnessed in Antarctica at all."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: YouTube / Tracks]]

Desperate to examine this life, the scientists put down a fishing net to this extraordinary depth and this creature is what they recovered.

The narrator continued: "The team take the opportunity to trawl the bottom, having set up more than 5,000 of cable into the sea.

"The beam trawl finally comes aboard at 2:00 am and, after six hours of waiting, the team gets its reward. 12 buckets of mud and one single fish.

"But in this mud lies many delectable delights like this sea cucumber. Then Kareen [Schnabel] finds an even more curious specimen."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: YouTube / Tracks]]

Recounting how exciting the discovery was, Dr. Schnalbel, a marine biologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said: "It has something quite interesting at the front which sort of likened it to a hippopotamus.

"We don't know how many are down there, we don't know how common this is.

"But I have never seen anything like this before."

To put how far down 3,500 meters is into context, that's a depth as high as the Swiss Alps.

Scientists working in the Antarctic have discovered a creature "like nothing seen before" 3,500 meters under the ice.

Expedition Antarctica set off on a 50-day exhibition of the Southern Ocean to learn more about its seabed earlier this year, and it's safe to say that their efforts have not been vain.

They shared their journey on YouTube in a documentary entitled, The Secrets of Antarctica, which reveals everything they've discovered so far: 

However, one discovery stood out more than most: a strange creature that has yet to be named.

The narrator explained: "Having braved ice storms, broken equipment and rough seas for almost two months, the team braces itself for the most high-pressured assignment of them all.

"They will delve 3,500 meters into the abyssal plain, a depth almost as high as the Swiss Alps.

"It will endure 300 times more pressure than we experience every day.

"Suddenly the abyssal plain reveals itself, it looks barren, like the surface of Mars, but a closer look reveals life that no one has ever witnessed in Antarctica at all."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: YouTube / Tracks]]

Desperate to examine this life, the scientists put down a fishing net to this extraordinary depth and this creature is what they recovered.

The narrator continued: "The team take the opportunity to trawl the bottom, having set up more than 5,000 of cable into the sea.

"The beam trawl finally comes aboard at 2:00 am and, after six hours of waiting, the team gets its reward. 12 buckets of mud and one single fish.

"But in this mud lies many delectable delights like this sea cucumber. Then Kareen [Schnabel] finds an even more curious specimen."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: YouTube / Tracks]]

Recounting how exciting the discovery was, Dr. Schnalbel, a marine biologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said: "It has something quite interesting at the front which sort of likened it to a hippopotamus.

"We don't know how many are down there, we don't know how common this is.

"But I have never seen anything like this before."

To put how far down 3,500 meters is into context, that's a depth as high as the Swiss Alps.