The deep sea is a great place to look for strange creatures. Every year, researchers capture incredible footage of alien-looking animals and strange new species in the deep, and this year was no different. There are 10 weird deep-sea creatures seen in 2021.
The red mysteries may be a new species. The image is from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
In August, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the discovery of a brand-new and unnamed species of blood-red jellyfish. The researchers think that the dark red jelly is from the same family as the Poralia.
They first spotted the new Jelly at a depth of around 2,300 feet off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Other animals were also seen on the dive.
The red wavelength of light does not penetrate into the deep ocean, so many deep-sea creatures have evolved a red color. Red animals appear black because there is no red light to reflect back toward potential predator.
There are some good videos for you.
Mysterious blood-red jellyfish may be a rare species.
Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute spotted a glass octopus in the deep sea of the Central Pacific Ocean. The image is from the Ocean Institute.
In August, researchers from the SOI released footage of a glass octopus off the coast of the remote Phoenix Islands, an archipelago located more than 3,200 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia.
The SOI's research vessel Falkor discovered the translucent cephalopod during a 34 day expedition of the Central Pacific Ocean. Scientists spotted the creature using the ROV SuBastian, which spent a total of 182 hours scanning the seafloor during the expedition.
Glass octopuses are almost completely transparent, with only their cylindrical eyes and nerve appearing opaque, like other "glass" creatures.
There is a glass octopus in the Pacific Ocean.
The whalefish is shape-changing.
A whalefish was spotted 6,600 feet deep in the ocean. The image is from 2021.
In August, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute released footage of a bright orange female whalefish, which is a member of the Cetomimiformes family.
There is very little known about this strange fish because it has three different looks. Scientists thought the three forms were different. It is believed that the shape-changing transformation from juvenile to mature females is the most extreme among all animals.
"Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute said.
Scientists were confounded for 100 years by the shape-changing fish spotted off the California coast.
'Emperor Dumbo'
The Emperor Dumbo octopus was discovered. The credit is for creative commons.
The researchers reported the discovery of a new species of Dumbo octopus called "Emperor Dumbo" in May.
The adorable creature was accidentally dragged to the surface in a net by researchers on the German research vessel Sonne during an expedition to the Aleutian Islands. The umbrella-like webbing joining their tentacles and their cartoonishly ear-like fins look like the oversized ears on Disney's famous elephant.
"It was a really lucky find, because we weren't really looking for it," said Alexander Ziegler, a researcher at Friedrich University in Bonn, Germany, and chief scientist onboard the research vessel. The animal came to the surface intact.
All hail 'Emperor Dumbo,' the newest species of deep-dwelling octopus.
There are real-lifeBob Sponge and Patrick.
The real-lifeBob Sponge and Patrick are side by side. The image is from the Christopher Ma photo.
The real-life SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick Star were side-by-side on the ocean floor in a comical photo released by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in August.
An ROV took a picture of the yellow sponge and five-pointed pink sea star at a depth of 6,184 feet.
The sea star and the sponge are both related to the same family, the Hertwigia, according to Christopher Mah, a marine biologist at the National Museum of Natural History. He said that the species could be brand new to science.
There is a real-life SpongeBob and Patrick found side by side. They probably don't get along.
Alien-like squid.
The big fin squid is a rare species in the Gulf of Mexico. The image is from the ocean exploration program of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
In November, scientists from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration spotted a rare big fin squid with an ROV in the Gulf of Mexico.
The ghostly squid has a body plan that is very strange with huge, iridescent fins and strange elbow-like bends in its tentacles. In the video footage, Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist with the NOAA Fisheries National Systematics Laboratory, can be heard saying that all of their arms and legs have spaghetti-like extensions. It's difficult to tell the arms from the tentacles, which is very unusual for a squid.
Since it was first discovered, there have been less than 20 confirmed instances of this deep-sea cephalopod.
A video captures a squid gliding in the Gulf of Mexico.
There is a phantom jellyfish.
A giant phantom jellyfish was caught on film by scientists. The image is from the year 2021.
In November, MBARI released rare video footage of a giant phantom jellyfish. The giant Jelly was spotted with its bell and arms at a depth of 3,200 feet in Monterey Bay, California.
Scientists think that phantom jellyfish uses its arms to catch unfortunate prey, and that it uses its arms to pull them up to its mouth. The creature propels itself through the dark depths with a faintly glowing bell.
The giant phantom Jelly was first collected in 1899. Scientists have only encountered this animal about 100 times since then. Jelly has been found in the depths of every major ocean except for the Arctic Ocean.
There is a giant 'phantom jellyfish' that eats with mouth-arms spotted off the California coast.
The squid is being photobombed.
The purpleback flying squid swam past the ROV that was investigating the wreck in the Gulf of Aqaba. The image is from OceanX.
Researchers trying to map the seafloor of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea were shocked when they discovered a wreck from 2011. The team's ROV was photobombed by a purpleback flying squid while trying to film the remains of the vessel.
The wreck and squid were found at a depth of around 2,788 feet. The scientists from OceanX think it was a solitary squid, but it was hard to identify the squid as it moved across the screen. The researchers said the squid had a body length of about 6 feet, which would be close to the maximum size for the species.
"It was so amazing for me," said Rodrigue, the science program lead at OceanX. We had no idea that we were going to see a large animal.
The crew is investigating a shipwreck.
There are tracks on the floor.
The sponges left trails in the ocean in the north. AWI OFOBS team, PS101
In April, a new study revealed the first evidence of deep-sea sponges crawling around on the seafloor, after researchers snapped photos of bizarre brown tracks left behind by the surprisingly mobile creatures.
The sponge trails were first photographed in 2016 by towed cameras behind a research vessel at Langseth Ridge, a poorly studied region of the Arctic Ocean that's permanently covered in sea ice.
Autun Purser, a deep-sea ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute at the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, told Live Science that the trails are made up of spicules. The sponge seems to expand along the spine and then contract to the new position. The trails are formed during this process.
The sponges leave strange brown trails to prove it.
A skull.
The scientists at the Monterey Submarine Canyon took a barreleye fish with aMacropinna microstoma.
Researchers at the MBARI caught a glimpse of a barreleye fish in December. The fish has a translucent forehead, which it uses to look through a pair of green eyes inside its head.
The Monterey Submarine Canyon is one of the deepest submarine canyons on the Pacific coast and is home to a strange creature filmed by an ROV. The species has only been spotted nine times before, despite the fact that the scientists have completed more than 5,600 dives in the fish's habitat.
The barreleye was small out in the blue distance, but I knew what I was looking at. "It couldn't be mistaken for anything else," said a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
New footage shows a fish that sees through its forehead.
Live Science published the original article.
