This ghostly organism was found at the bottom of the Ryukyu Trench and scientists are baffled by what this creature could be. | Photo credit: Jamieson et al., 2026, Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish and Caladan Oceanic

Scientists dropped cameras about 29,900 feet deep off the coast of Japan and discovered a deep-sea creature so strange that they could not identify it.

A team led by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre at the University of Western Australia discovered the mysterious slow-gliding marine creature during a two-month expedition on the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop. The team used high-definition cameras on the crewed submersible Limiting Factor to explore three of Japan’s deepest underwater trenches: the Japan Trench, the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, and the Ryukyu Trench.

https://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2026/05/Animalia-incerta-sedis.mp4

The researchers identified 108 distinct organism groups during the mission.…