Deep-sea creature — that can ‘shape-shift’ — is new species off Japan. See it

In the deep sea, there are places where chemicals and nutrients seep out of the sediment and into the water.

These chemosynthetics-based ecosystems were discovered in 1977, and in the decades since, researchers have been working to understand the strange and unique creatures that are able to call the sites home.

More recently, companies have become interested in mining these deep-sea vents for their “massive sulfide deposits” or “gas hydrates,” putting a clock on ecological research, according to a study published Sept. 24 in the peer-reviewed journal Contributions to Zoology.

Using both manned and unmanned submersible vehicles, researchers off the coast of Japan set out to look at multiple vent fields, according to the study.

They discovered limpets around the seeps, or mollusks with a conical shell and fleshy body underneath.

One of them was unlike anything that had been recorded before — a new species.

The limpet was collected from a hydrocarbon seep about 3,000 feet below the surface, researchers said.

It’s “medium-sized,” with shells about 0.2 inches long, according to the study.

However, the limpets show “highly variable shell morphology ranging from tall shells … (to) flat shells,” according to the study.

When the limpets are attached to worm tubes, they are tall, but while they are attached to the shells of mussels, they are flat, researchers said.

The creatures can therefore “shape-shift” to perfectly fit their environment, according to the study.

The shells are “bluish white” in color and considered “translucent,” researchers said.

The new species was named Pyropelta artemis, or the Artemis limpet.

Artemis is the “goddess of the Moon and the hunt in Greek mythology,” researchers said, and the changing shell shapes of the new species is likened “to the moon’s waxing and waning.”

The species has only been found in Sagami Bay, Japan, “where it occurs on tubeworms and the surfaces of other molluscs,” according to the study.

Two related species — P. yamato and P. ryukyuensis — have been listed as both critically endangered and endangered because of the threats of mining to the sulfide deposits in the deep sea off Japan, researchers said.

“We must continue to ensure that future conservation measures take these limpets into account and not overlook them because of their apparent rarity or minute size,” according to the study.

Sagami Bay is on the eastern coast of Japan, southwest of Tokyo.

The research team includes Chong Chen, Miwako Tsuda and Hiromi Kayama Watanabe.