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A bizarre sea creature known as the "headless chicken sea monster" has been filmed swimming in frigid waters off Antarctica for the first time.

Researchers were thrilled after an underwater camera captured the deep-sea swimming sea cucumber in the Southern Ocean.

The video was recently recorded off East Antarctica - the first time the creature - which has a transparent body - has been filmed off the continent.

Until now, the webbed creature had only been filmed swimming in warmer waters in the Bahamas.

The deep-sea cucumber is known as Enypniastes eximia, but it has been nicknamed the "headless chicken sea monster" and "headless chicken fish" by scientists.

Footage shows the sea cucumber moving along the sea floor while feeding, and swimming gracefully in shallow water.

This species is unlike the usual sea cucumber because it isn't inactive and it usually spends most of its time lurking around 50m above the sea bed, according to Extreme Marine.

It was first filmed in April 1984 off Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.

The transparent creature has a bulbous barrel-shaped body with a large webbed vampiric veil made up of 12 conically-shaped podia, or feet, at the front of its body, Extreme Marine said.

That veil provides lift while it is swimming, while its back two rectangular-shaped veils, with 10 to 15 feet, allow it to steer.

Some have measured up to almost 10ins in length, and juveniles tend to be pale pink while adults are dark brown-red to crimson in colour.

It can glow to fend off predators, emitting light from its feet, tentacle tips and other points on its body, Extreme Marine said.

In addition to bioluminescence, it can throw up its internal organs to scare away potential threats.

It also uses its fragile and sticky skin to temporarily stain predators with a cloud of glowing tissue - making the predator more obvious to its own predators.

This type of sea cucumber spends most of its time swimming, and when it feeds along the sea bed it buries its feed into the sediment to anchor itself to the floor, Extreme Marine said.