E/V Nautilus team find likely sea slug 5,000ft below sea off
Santa Barbara
Analysis reveals foot and proboscis, making it ‘a gastropod
of some kind’
Saturday 30 July 201611.00 BSTLast modified on Saturday
30 July 201617.37 BST
More than 5,000ft below the surface of the ocean, in a
canyon off the coast of southern California, the
purple, globular creature appeared to glow under the submersible’s lights.
“What is that?” one
researcher asked, as the submersible’s camera moved over a crab to where the
tiny orb hovered near a ledge.
“I’m stumped,” another replied. “I have no idea. I can’t
even hazard a guess.”
“Are we going to grab it?” a third asked. The crab, startled
by the submarine, scuttled toward the ledge. “Unless the crab gets it first.”
One of the crab’s spindly limbs knocked the orb, but it
clung steadfast in place. A researcher guessed it could be related to plankton,
the “kind that are sort of lumpy and thick like that”. Another tried “an egg
sack of some sort” with “a little embryo type thing inside”.
The team trained a vacuum at the creature, ready to suction
it into a storage container.
“It looks like a disco ball right now with the lasers next
to it,” one scientist said. Before long, the purple mystery was transferred
from the depths to the waiting ship above.
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