North Beach Walking Tour November 14th, 2024
By Tara Duggan, Reporter Nov 12, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle
Bruce Robison was sitting in the control room of a research ship in Monterey Bay when he first saw the diaphanous deep-sea creature glide across a video screen. He had no idea what it could possibly be.
The animal was translucent with a large hooded head, a cylindrical foot and what could be mistaken for a crown of antenna, except they were attached to its backside. Two raspberry-red blobs in its center made up its digestive organs.
“It’s really a funny-looking animal,” Robison said. “It sort of looks like it’s been made up from spare parts left over from some other job.”
That was back in 2000, when Robison, a senior scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI, and others first laid eyes on what they would later call the Mystery Mollusk via a remotely operated vehicle at 8,576 feet. After 150 viewings, many rounds of measurements, some genetic studies and 24 years later, Robison now has published a scientific description of the animal with the scientific name Bathydevius caudactylus.
Robison, who co-wrote the description with Steven Haddock at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, believes it is the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea creature ever. It includes details on what the grapefruit-size organism eats, how it reproduces and its metabolism.
Monterey Bay and its 5,580-foot-deep canyon right off the coast is one of the best-studied deep-sea areas in the world, Robison said. The discovery shows how many other animals are likely living in the depths of the other less-explored oceans and the need to conserve those areas, he said.
“This little critter is an indicator of how much there is yet to discover in the deep ocean,” he said. “And that, to me, has really profound significance.”
A mysterious deep-sea creature appeared in Monterey Bay. Now scientists are finally telling the worl
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