New sea creature with 20 arms and ‘strawberry body’ discovered near Antarctica | Science and the planet

The scientific name of this species is “Promachocrinus fragarius,” and according to the study, the name Fragarius is derived from the Latin word “fragum,” which means “strawberry.” At first glance, the animal doesn’t look much like a strawberry. The new sea creature has about 20 arms and the animal’s color can range from ‘purple’ to ‘dark red’. If you zoom in on the animal’s body, the comparison with a strawberry is not so strange. The sea creature has a strawberry-like shape, and its texture is very similar to the fruit.

“The strawberry feather star has 20 tentacle-like filaments, or arms, and can be up to 8 inches long,” says Greg W. Ross, a professor of marine biology at UCLA. She and his team discovered the animal by towing a net in the Southern Ocean. “The number of arms in particular is notable: other types of feather stars usually have only ten.”

At the end of the arms there are small claws that the animal uses to cling to and move across the sea floor. Researchers also discovered that these creatures are enormous in size and can live between 65 and 1,170 meters underwater.

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The strawberry feathered star isn’t the only species scientists have discovered. Researchers made several trips to the Antarctic Ocean between 2008 and 2017 in search of a group of “mysterious” marine animals that they believe have “strange” movements.

The team took samples from all over the world. “In total, scientists were able to identify seven new species under the name Promachocrinus, increasing the total number of known Antarctic feathered birds from one to eight,” they said.