Monday November 18, 2024
The Mercury News —
Undulating deep in Monterey Bay, the translucent mystery mollusc defied characterization. On Tuesday, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) announced their discovery of these ghostly creatures as the first member of a brand-new family of nudibranchs (sea slugs) that floats through the water column instead of crawling along the seafloor.
The mystery mollusc, Bathydevius caudactylus, with its large jellyfish-like hood, snail-like body and finger-like appendages, defied expectations from the first sightings in 2000 from MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles. These custom vehicles survey the deep ocean doing everything from measuring water chemistry to looking for undiscovered species. Sightings of the mystery mollusc were rare, with 157 individuals observed over the decades.
And these individuals baffled scientists from the beginning. “It’s not very similar to anything else,” said Bruce Robison, senior scientist at MBARI. “When we first came upon it, we were all saying to each other, ‘What the heck is that?’ because we’ve never seen anything like it before.”