![]() Yet even eight kilometres down, where the basic chemistry of life was once thought impossible, we find strange species swimming through the darkness. The sheer weight of water above creates almost unendurable pressures. The deeper you go, the more extreme conditions become. ![]() There are fish that walk instead of swim, worms that feed exclusively on bones and shrimps that spend almost their entire lives imprisoned with their mate in a cage of crystal sponge. ![]() Food is hard to come by and finding a mate is even harder, but life adapts in ingenious ways. On the desert wastes of the abyss, a whale carcass generates a frenzy as slow-moving sharks as big as great whites fight for what may be their first meal in a year. We encounter savage hordes of Humboldt squid hunting lanternfish in the depths and coral gardens flourishing in absolute darkness, with more species of coral to be found in the deep than on shallow tropical reefs. We discover alien worlds, bizarre creatures and extraordinary new behaviours never seen before. This episode takes us on an epic journey into the unknown, a realm that feels almost like science fiction. Scientists already think that there is more life in the deep than anywhere else on Earth. We have barely begun to explore it, and yet it is the largest living space on the planet. The deep is perhaps the most hostile environment on Earth, at least to us - a world of crushing pressure, brutal cold and utter darkness. ![]()
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