Scientists have discovered a living fossil in American Samoa at a depth of more than 4000 metres while exploring the ocean floor.
The United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its partners on the Samoa Expedition and have made several startling biological discoveries at least a dozen of which are believed to be new animal species.
These include an anemone resembling a Venus Flytrap, a jellyfish that looks like a spaceship and a fish walking along the ocean floor.
But the expedition's lead biologist Santiago Herrera of Lehigh University said his favourite discovery was being able to observe a live one shell mollusc, only known from fossil records until several specimens were dredged up from a deep trench off the Pacific coast of Central America in 1952.
He spoke with Koroi Hawkins who began by asking him why he thought the expedition was making so many amazing discoveries.
Close up of a monoplacophoran mollusk, 2017 American Samoa. Photo: Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
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