A squad of researcher has release a elaborated verbal description of the submarine creature antecedently nickname the “ closed book mollusk ” due to its freaky body .
The creature ’s scientific name isBathydevius caudactylus , and it was first observed in 2000 by a remotely operated vehicle ( ROV ) making a dive off California ’s Monterey Bay . That ’s right : This animal is so weird that it took nearly a quarter - century to pinpoint down its branch on the tree diagram of lifespan . Accordingto Bruce Robison , a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute , it ’s “ the most comprehensive description of a deep - ocean animate being ever made . ”
This picky nudibranch is the first known to experience in the deep water newspaper column — the ocean ’s midnight geographical zone — between 3,300 feet and 13,100 pes deep ( 1,000 to 4,000 metre ) . But the most captivating aspect of the mystery mollusk is its bizarre morphology , which pick out a couple decades to fully investigate . The animal has a gelatinous hood , a fingered , boat paddle - alike tail , and is bioluminescent — the creature luminescence . That makes it a rare example of a bioluminescent nudibranch .
The “Mystery Mollusk” in the deep sea.Image: © 2014 MBARI
The mystery shellfish brings to mind another famously puzzling critter : the platypus . Indeed , when Western scientists first encountered the egg-laying mammal , they thought it was a hoax . Featuring the body of an otter , webbed feet , a beaver - alike ass , a duck bill , and venomous spur track — it ’s hard to pick them . IfB. caudactyluswasn’t so foreign to our mammalian senses to set out with , you ’d in all likelihood react the same way to it .
“ When we first filmed it glowing with the ROV , everyone in the control elbow room lease out a gaudy ‘ Oooooh ! ’ at the same time , ” said Steven Haddock , a senior scientist at MBARI , in an instituterelease .
The team notice that its bioluminescence come from glowing granule throughout the beast ’s hood and its tooshie . Sometimes , the animal will lose one of its glowing , finger’s breadth - like appendages ( or “ dactyls ” ) on its tail , which the researchers believe is a path to distract predators . Do n’t concern — the brute can regenerate its dactyl .
“ Only of late have cameras become capable of filming bioluminescence in high - resolution and in full vividness , ” Haddock added . “ MBARI is one of the only places in the earth where we have take this new engineering into the thick sea , allowing us to canvass the aglow conduct of deep - sea animals in their natural home ground . ”
The 5.6 - inch - long ( 14.5 - centimetre ) invertebrate feed crustacean , which it pulls into its funnel - shaped mouth , locate at the back of the animal ’s elastic hood . It ’s also hermaphrodite , and spawn on the seafloor — as mystifying as nine conglomerate State Buildings pile on top of one another .
The animal also has a lower metabolism than other recognize nudibranchs ; its respiration rate are more similar to those notice in bass - ocean man-of-war . That ’s a reflection of the wayB. caudactylusgoes about life in the rich ocean : with the flow , as the animal is neutrally chirpy . When it swim , it does so slowly . Sometimes , it move about the ocean by simply drifting .
ground ’s sea cut across about 70 % of its surface , but scientist have only map about a tail of the spherical seafloor . There ’s plenty of way for mystery in theaverage 12,080 metrical unit ( 3,682 meters ) of waterbetween the surface and the bottom of the sea .
allot to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , about 67 % of the estimated million species in the sea have yet to be identified — and that ’s not counting the millions of microorganisms that eke out beingness in some of itsmost mysterious depths . Just last month , a squad coordinated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute identifiedanimals be beneath the seafloor , stretch out the get it on bounds of life on Earth .
The mystery shellfish is no longer an enigma to skill , but still feature an eye - drink down range of geomorphologic lineament . It ’s a reminder that even when we learn more about our diverse Earth , it always has another surprise in fund .
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