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Environment

Fisherman claims discovery of bizarre creature with smiling face

It is unclear what species the strange creature belongs to.

An Instagram-famous fisherman has shared footage of a bizarre creature he claims was captured in the deep sea.

Roman Fedortsov reportedly came across the creature — which resembles a legless centipede — during a routine deep sea trawl.

The angler fishes mostly on a vessel based out of Murmansk, in north-west Russia, according to the Daily Mail.

The clip, shared to Twitter, depicts the creature writhing in a gloved hand as it turns its face inside out, twisting it to resemble something of a smile.

Mr Fedortsov, who emits a high-pitched squeal while filming, captioned the video: "If this creature could scream, it would scream like this... I think so..."

It is unclear what species the nightmare-inducing creature belongs to, though Mr Fedortsov said he sometimes came across it while trawling Russian waters.

Mr Fedortsov regularly posts photographs and videos of his deep sea finds and has amassed 73,500 Instagram followers.

Speaking to the Daily Mail earlier this year, he said: "I think all fish are beautiful in their own way. I can't say that some are ugly or monstrous".

Mr Fedortsov said many of the creatures he finds are from the "twilight zone" of the deep sea.

The barely-lit zone is found between 200 metres and 1,000 metres below the surface of the sea.

The fish that live there have adapted to life in near-total darkness, cold water and high pressure.

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