Just off the coast of California, deep below the surface, a small pink fish with bumpy skin drifted slowly above the ocean floor.

Until recently, no one knew it existed.

This adorable pale pink species—nicknamed the “bumpy snailfish”—is one of three newly described deep-sea fishes discovered off the Pacific coast. All three belong to the family Liparidae, or snailfishes, a diverse group of gelatinous-bodied creatures that thrive in some of Earth’s most extreme environments.

The findings, published in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology on August 27, 2025, underscore just how little we truly know about life in the deep ocean, the planet’s largest and least explored habitat.

A Living Landscape Still Unfolding

In 2019, researchers used two submersibles, the remotely operated Doc Ricketts and the crewed Alvin, to discover the new species.

Researchers found the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi) at a depth of 3,268 meters (about 10,722 feet) in Monterey Canyon. The other two species—the sleek snailfish (Paraliparis em) and the dark snailfish (Careproctus yanceyi)—showed up on a single dive near Station M, a long-term deep-sea research site roughly 300 kilometers off the coast of Santa Barbara.

“The fact that two undescribed species of snailfishes were collected from the same place, on the same dive, at one of the better-studied parts of the deep sea in the world highlights how much we still have to learn about our planet,” Mackenzie Gerringer, lead author of the study and a marine biologist at the State University of New York at Geneseo, told IFLScience.

The researchers used a blend of tools, such as microscopy, micro-CT scans, and genetic sequencing, to confirm that these fish weren’t just new to them, but new to science. In each case, DNA analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene helped distinguish the new species from its closest known relatives.

The Bumpy, the Dark, and the Sleek

Each fish comes with its own story, written in bone and soft tissue, in color and shape.

The bumpy snailfish (C. colliculi) has a round head, eight tail-fin rays, and a prominent suction disk on its belly that helps it cling to rocks or even ride on other animals. What makes this fish particularly distinctive is the soft, fleshy bumps across its bubblegum pink skin—especially around the head. “Pretty adorable,” Gerringer told The New York Times.

The dark snailfish (C. yanceyi), named in honor of deep-sea biologist Paul Yancey, has a rounded head, horizontal mouth, and small suction disk. The species showed clear genetic differences from other known snailfish. In fact, it may belong to a previously unrecognized evolutionary branch within its family. “[Yancey’s work] fundamentally shaped our understanding of deep-sea animal adaptation to high pressure,” said co-author Jeffrey Drazen of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

The sleek snailfish (P. em), meanwhile, is the most hydrodynamic of the trio, with a long, narrow body, an angled jaw, and no suction disk at all. Named after Station M, it appears to be genetically closest to species found halfway across the globe, in the Indian Ocean’s Crozet Basin. Despite 18,000 kilometers of separation, the DNA of P. em closely resembles that of Paraliparis wolffi. Yet differences in both genetics and morphology convinced the team that they were dealing with a new species.

Filling Gaps in the Abyss

Scientists have found some snailfish living deeper than 8,000 meters, the greatest depth known for any fish. Their soft, tadpole-shaped bodies feature heads that are unusually large for their size. Many have evolved suction disks to survive crushing pressures and scarce resources.

Scientists have described over 450 species of snailfish so far, but the pace of discovery has accelerated in recent years. In the past decade alone, 43 new species have been added to the list.

Still, there has been a curious gap in the record. Scientists have documented many snailfishes in hadal trenches below 6,000 meters, but far fewer at abyssal depths of 3,000 to 5,000 meters. Researchers have long suspected this absence might reflect sampling bias rather than a true lack of biodiversity.

This new study helps confirm that suspicion.

“These new collections demonstrate that snailfishes inhabit deep abyssal depths and call for further exploration of abyssal fish biodiversity,” the authors wrote.

Snailfish may not look like much at first glance. Some are jelly-bodied, with vacant stares and translucent flesh. But to researchers, they are stunning examples of adaptation and resilience.

“[They] come in beautiful colors,” Johanna Weston, a deep-sea ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the study, told The New York Times. “They also have a lovely little smile on their face”.

Whether pink and bumpy or dark and sleek, these new snailfish remind us of how vast, and how unknown the deep ocean still remains.