Thousands of metres beneath the surface of the Earth in a near-endless void, carnivorous ping pong balls are on the hunt.

No, this isn’t the plot of a cheesy 1980s midnight movie – this ‘death ball sponge’ is one of 30 deep-sea creatures discovered by a recent expedition.

Living in one of the most remote regions of the planet is the Chondrocladia sp. nov, which is covered in tiny hooks to trap prey.

Chondrocladia sp. nov were found 3,601 metres into the Trench North, just east of Montagu Island, 1,200 miles south-east of the Falkland Islands. On the menu are copepods, teeny-tiny shrimplike crustaceans which are a common source of protein for marine life.

Dr Nicolai Roterman, of the University of Portsmouth, who was not involved in the expedition, said this is a far cry from other sea s

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