The world’s smallest flesh-eating piranha-like creature is lurking in the sea off the Irish coast.
And don’t be fooled by its tiny 3mm length – the deep-sea creature can take on whales and Great White sharks and strip the flesh from dead pigs and other livestock within hours.
The tiny sea crustaceans – which are the same size as just three grains of salt – have been discovered prowling off the south-west coast.
Called amphipods and incredibly tiny, they are like mini-piranha because they have teeth sharp enough to tear through the carcasses of dead whales and sharks which sink to the ocean bed.
A team of scientists from Southampton’s National Oceanography Centre also revealed the miniature sea beasties have been known to devour pig corpses within a few hours.
Billions of the terrifying crustaceans live in depths of down to 4,500m in the North Atlantic and hunt in huge shoals to eat the remains of dead marine animals, from whales to seabirds.
NOC scientists set out to catch them using a trap filled with mackerel bait, and were shocked to discover they snared 40,000 of the creatures, which have since been named after late biologist Roger Bamber.
Lead author Dr Tammy Horton revealed: “Amphipods are incredibly diverse and adaptable – there are currently around 10,000 known species.
“They live in all marine environments, from shallow waters to the oceans deepest trenches, on land and in fresh water.
“I gave the species name ‘lemarete’ to one of the amphipods because it translates from Greek to ‘bold and excellent’, which is the motto on Roger Bamber’s coat of arms.
“Roger always put a lot of thought into the names he gave species, such as the tanaid species he named after a creature in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.”
The research forms part of the NOCs ongoing deep-sea study, linking with the oil and gas industry on how their work affects the environment.