Makes you want to take it home, right? And not to put it in a pot. This adorable pulpit has come to light by pure chance, during a mission of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the waters of Necker Island , about 250 kilometers northwest of the Hawaiian archipelago .
How it happened? On February 27, the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer was in the vicinity of that small island. Its main objective was to collect geological samples from the bottom to improve the knowledge of the underwater relief of the Pacific . In addition, the unmanned submarine Deep Discoverer, piloted from the ship, was going to observe the marine life in the area.
As this drone crossed an area 4,290 meters deep, its cameras captured a small octopus calmly perched on a flat rock covered in sediment. Until now, no cephalopods of this type have been observed that far from the surface .
Deep-sea octopods are divided into two groups: cirrad octopuses , which have elongated finger-shaped appendages or papillae along the sides of the tentacles in the oral region; and the non-cirrates , which lack this trait and resemble octopuses from more shallow waters.
The discovered cephalopod belongs to the second. It lacks chromatophores (cells with pigments inside typical of these animals) and has little musculature , which results in a ghostly appearance that has led to it being called “Casper”, like the famous cartoon ghost.
Specialists think that it almost certainly belongs to an undescribed species, and that it could even be part of a new, unknown genus. Cirrus octopuses have been seen at depths of more than 5,000 meters, but so far no non-cirrus octopuses have been reported below 4,000 meters. That honor has remained for “Casper”, still awaiting a scientific name.
Image: Courtesy of NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
