Deep-sea creature — with ‘glass’ shell — discovered as new species off Japan. See it
Off the coast of Japan, thousands of feet below the surface, the seafloor explodes with heat.
Cracks and vents in the rocky sediment allow boiling seawater heated by subterranean magma to shoot back up into the sea, reaching temperatures of more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s hard to believe that anything could live here, but these deep-sea hydrothermal vents are teeming with life, including species yet to be discovered.
In December 2016, researchers operating a remote-controlled underwater robot were exploring the Higashi-Ensei vent field near the Tokara Islands when they reached a depth of more than 3,000 feet, according to a study published Feb. 10 in the peer-reviewed journal Invertebrate Systematics.
They noticed a shelled creature near the hydrothermal vents and collected a specimen to bring back to the surface for further study.
The shell was completely translucent, revealing the scallop inside, researchers said, and it was identified as a species new to science.
Delectopecten thermus, or the thermal glass scallop, has a shell that is not quite circular with an asymmetrical hinge, according to the study.
The shell can reach up to 0.4 inches long, according to the study, and while transparent, it has a “pearlescent” appearance with rayed ridges. The shell itself is “fragile” but convex to hold the scallop animal inside.
The scallop has a “single row of long tentacles” with eye spots and a large gill, according to the study.
Some bivalves are chemosymbiotic, meaning they house bacteria that create energy by synthesizing chemical reactions, thereby making “food” from inorganic material. This includes many species found around hydrothermal vents where chemical reactions are plentiful.
The thermal glass scallop, however, did not have any chemosynthetic bacteria around its body during examination, suggesting that this species is a filter-feeder, according to the study.
The researchers note that they only included one specimen for the study, so there is a chance there is some variation between members of the species.
Sea scallops are part of the bivalve family because the animals inside create their own shells through the secretion of calcium carbonate, according to the Ocean Conservancy.
The animals swim by opening and closing their shells quickly, propelling them through the water. The filter-feeding species eat plankton by catching the tiny creatures on their mucus and then moving them to their mouth through the help of small hairs, according to the conservancy.
Hydrothermal environments are still relatively understudied because they weren’t discovered until 1977, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The first vents were found around the Galapagos Islands and opened the door for the discovery of a large number of species that depend on the chemically-rich seawater to survive.
The thermal glass scallop was found in Okinawa Trough, southwest of the southernmost island, Kyushu, of Japan’s four main islands in the East China Sea.
The research team includes Yi-Tao Lin, Ying-Bei Peng, Chong Chen, Ting Xu and Jian-Wen Qiu.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Deep-sea creature — with ‘glass’ shell — discovered as new species off Japan. See it."
