A ‘fire wolf’ fish could expand what we know about one unusual deep-sea ecosystem

The animal’s existence could help scientists better understand a lukewarm methane seep

A photo of a small purple fist swimming near some plant life and what appears to be a robot arm.

A small purplish fish first spotted during expeditions to a deep-sea methane seep over a decade ago is now known to be a new species, Pyrolycus jaco.

ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute

Off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica sits a deep-sea chimera of an ecosystem. Jacó Scar is a methane seep, where the gas escapes from sediment into the seawater, but the seep isn’t cold like the others found before it.