Cruising through the narrow gap between the newly-liberated iceberg, named A-74, and the Brunt Ice Shelf in northern Antarctica, the German research vessel Polarstern took hours of footage and thousands of photos of the reclusive creatures living 18 miles (30 kilometers) below the surface. The researchers discovered a bustling community of mollusks, filter feeders, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and at least five species of fish and two squid species, they reported.

"The first images from the seafloor reveal an amazing level of biodiversity in a region that was covered by thick ice for decades," researchers with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany, which is in charge of the Polarstern mission, said in a statement.