DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
From a video showing fish in the Japan Trench. PICTURE: Reuters video screenshot
• Fish have been caught more than eight kilometres under the surface of the ocean for the first time ever – and filmed even deeper – by a joint Japanese-Australian scientific expedition. The expedition’s chief scientist, Professor Alan Jamieson, said on Monday that two snailfish were caught in traps set 8,022 metres underwater in the Japan Trench, south of Japan, during a two-month voyage by a team from the University of Western Australia and the Tokyo University of Marine Science. The snailfish, of the Pseudoliparis belyaevi species, are the first to be caught below 8,000 metres, the expedition said. It wasn’t immediately clear how big the fish were, but the species has been recorded as reaching a length of close to 11 centimetres Remotely operated cameras lowered from the DSSV Pressure Drop by the joint expedition, part of a 10-year study into the deepest fish population on the planet, also recorded an unknown snailfish species swimming 8,336 metres deep in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench off southern Japan. “The Japanese trenches were incredible places to explore; they are so rich in life, even all the way at the bottom,” said Jamieson, founder of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre. “We tell people from the very early ages, as young as two or three, that the deep sea is a horrible scary place that you shouldn’t go and that grows with you with time,” said Jamieson. “We don’t appreciate the fact that it [the deep sea] is fundamentally most of planet Earth and resources should be put into understanding and how to work out how we are affecting it and how it works.” – CORDELIA HSU, Sydney, Australia/Reuters
• El Salvador’s Easter kicked off on Monday with the traditional ceremony where men dressed as devils whip each other during an event meant to highlight the universal struggle of good versus evil. The tradition takes place each year in the town of Texistepeque, El Salvador, located some 83 kilometres north of San Salvador. Actors called Talciguines – which means demon man – dress as devils in order to punish people for their sins by lashing them. Many flock from different surrounding regions in El Salvador to take part in the event and get whipped to repent for sins committed during the year. The Talciguines and a man disguised as Jesus first attend mass and offer their performances as a sacrifice. When mass ends, the whipping begins on the streets. The annual ceremony takes place before Easter when Catholics and other Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead after dying for their sins. – Reuters TV
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A Tyrannasaurus Rex skeleton named “TRX-293 TRINITY Tyrannosaurus” and measuring 11.6 metres long and 3.9 metres high, is seen during a preview at Koller auction house in Zurich, Switzerland, on 29th March, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse
• A rare skeleton of a Tyrannasaurus Rex will go up for auction in the Swiss city of Zurich later this month. Named “TRX-293 Trinity”, the skeleton is expected to fetch between five million ($US5.43 million) and eight million Swiss francs ($US8.70 million) when it goes on sale on 18th April. Standing 3.9 metres high and measuring 11.6 metres long, it is only the third T-Rex skeleton to be offered at auction, and the first in Europe. “The name of this skeleton is ‘Trinity’, because it’s built out of three individuals and all were found in the US,” said Cyril Koller, owner of the auction house conducting the sale. The rest of the name derives from the 293 bones in its skeleton. Koller thought a private individual would be the likely buyer, although he was sure the public would still get to see it in future. Discoveries of T-Rex fossils are extremely rare, said Hans Jacob-Siber, a paleontologist at the Aathal Dinosaur Museum in Switzerland. “It’s not a cast or a copy, it’s the original. And there are very few, very few,” Siber told Reuters. “In fact, until about 1970 or 1980, there used to be less than a dozen Tyrannosaurus, most of them were already in United States’ museums.” Almost all of the other fossilised T-Rexes are housed in museums, meaning massive interest whenever a skeleton comes up for sale. Two other T-Rexes discovered in North America – called Sue and Stan – fetched $US8.4 million and $US31.8 million respectively when they were sold in 1997 and 2020. – With CECILE MANTOVANI/Reuters
