Icebergs split off from Antarctica quite regularly, though typically they are pretty small. When large ones break away, it is generally seen as an unfortunate thing, likely caused by climate change. When it happened recently, however, scientists jumped to action to get a look at the seafloor below, which has never before been studied because it was blocked by the ice above.

They were able to make lots of observations, the most exciting of which was capturing a small Glacial Glass Squid swimming around. This is the first time that this species has ever been filmed while alive. They are typically found dead in fishers’ nets or in the stomachs of whales.

Then, to make their research even more rewarding, they were able to film a colossal squid for the first time ever, just a few weeks later.

These two sea creatures are members of the same glass squid family, though they are very different in size. The glacial glass squid remains quite small throughout its entire life, whereas the colossal squid can reach 7 meters (23 feet) in length.

To see the first-ever video of this incredible animal, watch this video:

In a statement, Dr. Jyotika Virmani, Schmidt Ocean Institute’s executive director, said:

“The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean. Fortunately, we caught enough high-resolution imagery of these creatures to allow the global experts, who were not on the vessel, to identify both species.”

The team was lucky to be able to capture such incredible videos in this area so soon after the iceberg broke off and floated away. The sea creatures will likely swim under other areas of the ice to stay hidden and live out their lives in darkness.

Additional study is needed for these and all arctic environments to learn more about how they live as well as how climate change is affecting their ecosystem.

Capturing two new species on video is very lucky.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?