#deep-sea-biology

#deep-sea-biology

For more than two decades, scientists at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have occasionally spotted a little translucent creature in the ocean's midnight zone. The gelatinous blob uses a hood surrounding its head to catch prey and has detachable tentacles; its hood and tail are decorated with glowing blue-green dots. This year, scientists finally figured out what it isthe mystery mollusk is actually a nudibranch, or sea slug. In fact, it's from an entirely new family of nudibranchs and has been dubbed Bathydevius caudactylus.

Tony Cheesman, who lives in the seaside town of Penguin, was walking his two dogs, Ronan and Custard, along the beach at Preservation Bay on Friday morning when something silvery and surrounded by gulls grabbed his attention. When I got to it, I saw this massive fish, then I noticed the beautiful colours, and it had these long fans coming out of its chin and the top of its head, he said. I'd never seen anything like it.