by If you want to see an alien creature, stop looking in the cosmos and take a trip to the bottom of the ocean.
The depths of the ocean are full of strange and wonderful creatures, and as humans venture deeper into the abyss, more and more of them are discovered. In 2022, scientists discovered an entire aquarium’s worth of deep-sea beauties. From blue goo and gummy squirrels to a spaghetti worm and Jell-O fish, here are our favorites.
Luminous lump of spaghetti
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A bizarre seabed creature covered in glowing orange, spaghetti-like tentacles has caused a stir online.
Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) first discovered the spaghetti worm, from the genus Biremisusing a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in 2012 while exploring the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico.
The pasta-like worm has no eyes or gills and uses its colorful tentacles to catch the tiny bits of organic detritus, also known as marine snow, that fall to the sea floor.
Most spaghetti worms live in caves or tunnels beneath the ocean floor and simply stick their noodle-like tentacles into the water to pick up morsels of food. But this Biremis the worm spends its life above the sea floor and has previously been observed swimming through the water or crawling along the sea floor to find places where food is plentiful.
Read more: Weird deep sea snake looks like a glowing lump of spaghetti
Mother squid lay pearl-like eggs
Extremely rare footage of a mother squid carrying a gelatinous string of glistening pearl-like eggs in her arms was captured in the dark ocean depths off the coast of California.
MBARI researchers discovered the deep-sea octopus (an unknown species in the genus Bathyteuthis) with an ROV about 56 miles (90 kilometers) offshore at a depth of 4,560 feet (1,390 meters).
Squid mothers tend not to incubate or carry their eggs. Most females will drop their eggs on the seabed or in large gelatinous clumps. Egging may increase the egg’s chance of hatching, but it probably also increases the risk of predation for the mother, which is why it is so rare.
The overprotective mum may look large in the photo compared to her eggs, but in reality her mantle – the main part of a squid’s body that contains all the major organs – can only grow to a maximum length of 7.5 centimeters.
Read more: Deep sea squid mother carries dazzling pearl-like eggs
Gummy squirrel
A bizarre gelatinous creature resembling a half-peeled banana was discovered by scientists in the Pacific Ocean. The creature, known as a gummy squirrel (Psychropotes longicauda), is actually a sea cucumber and was around 60 cm long.
The gummy squirrel was one of 55 specimens collected by scientists from the Natural History Museum in London after exploring the ocean floor in the Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone, which lies between Hawaii and Mexico.
Other notable creatures from the tour include a tulip-shaped sea sponge and a coral believed to be exclusive to the Atlantic Ocean. As many as 39 of the creatures collected may belong to never-before-seen species.
Read more: ‘Gummy squirrel’ found in the deep sea abyss looks like a stretchy half-peeled banana
Mysterious blue goo
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Scientists were left scratching their heads after they found mysterious sticky creatures on the seabed around St. Croix, one of the US Virgin Islands.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spotted several “blue goo” creatures using an ROV and live-streamed the dive online. The mysterious spots sat motionless on the ocean floor between 1,335 and 2,005 feet (407 and 611 m) below the water’s surface.
During the live broadcast, the researchers guessed what it could be. Suggestions included soft corals and sea sponges, but there was no unanimous answer. “I can tell you it’s not a rock, but that’s as far as I can go,” joked one researcher.
Read more: Mysterious ‘blue goo’ at the bottom of the ocean stumps scientists
Weird-eyed strawberry squid
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| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Row 0 – Cell 1 |
| Row 1 – Cell 0 | Row 1 – Cell 1 |
| Row 2 – Cell 0 | Row 2 – Cell 1 |
MBARI researchers caught a glimpse of a bright red squid with distinctive beaks. The strawberry squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis) had one large yellow bulbous eye, while the other was small and black.
The team discovered the strange octopus using an ROV at a depth of 2,378 feet (725 m) in the Monterey Canyon off the coast of California.
The squid’s non-adapted eyes give it an unusual advantage in the deep sea: the large yellow eye looks up to spot shadows cast by animals above, and the smaller black eye looks down for glimpses of bioluminescence given off by prey and potential predators.
Interestingly enough, H. heteropsis Cubs are born with two equally large eyes. As they develop into pups, the left eye increases in size and the right remains the same size. By adulthood, the left eye may be more than twice the size of the right eye.
Read more: Strange-eyed strawberry squid discovered in the ‘twilight zone’ off the coast of California
A bizarre deep-sea creature resembling a floating plastic bag of glowing Cheeto guts was discovered near Hawaii.
Scientists from Nautilus Live discovered the floating drifting creature with an ROV at a depth of 7,221 feet (2,201 m) in the Marine National Monument southeast of Honolulu. The bizarre animal is actually a sea cucumber in the family Elpidiidae that removes marine snow that falls to the seabed.
The transparent creature has a fin-like appendage that helps it swim short distances above the ocean floor, as it did when scientists discovered it. The bright orange tubes inside the sea cucumber are its intestines, but it is unclear why they are so colorful.
Read more: Alien shopping bag ocean weirdo has glowing Cheetos for guts
Transparent “Jell-O fish”
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NOAA scientists were surprised after reeling in a bizarre-looking, jelly-like fish while trawling the ocean floor off the coast of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
The gelatinous fish, known as a spotted snail fish (Crystallichthys cyclospilus), had a translucent body covered in ringed spots and an unusual suction cup on its abdomen, which is actually a modified fin that allows it to cling to the sea floor.
Blotched snailfish can live in water up to 2,723 feet (830 m) below sea level. Their Jell-O-like consistency allows them to withstand the crushing pressure of the deep sea, and their translucent bodies help hide them from predators. However, large parts of their life history remain a mystery to scientists.
Read more: Bizarre translucent ‘Jell-O fish’ rose from the icy depths of Alaska
Scary “smiling” shark
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A fisherman was shocked to reel in a mysterious deep-sea shark from the depths off the coast of Australia. The unusual specimen had bulging eyes, rough sandpaper-like skin, a large pointed snout, and an unnerving, human-like smile.
No one knows exactly what species the creepy creature might belong to, adding to the mystery surrounding the creature that was pulled up from about 2,130 feet (650 m) below the surface.
Guesses as to what type of shark the smiling specimen was included included cake shark, goblin shark, lantern shark, test dogfish, kitefin shark and roughskin dogfish. But several shark experts told LiveScience that the nervous animal was most likely a thresher shark.
Read more: Mysterious “nightmare” shark with unnerving human-like smile pulled up from the deep sea
Deepest living squid
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A team of researchers hunting the wreckage of a wrecked World War II destroyer made another exciting discovery: Video evidence of the deepest-swimming octopus ever recorded.
The team discovered the bigfin squid, from the family Magnapinnidae, just above the floor of the Philippine Trench east of the Philippines at a staggering depth of about 20,300 feet (6,200 m) below the surface. The researchers also saw four dumbo octopuses (Grimpoteuthis sp.) at a similar depth.
The deep squid broke the record held by the previous champion, another large-finned squid was discovered approximately 15,400 feet (4,700 m) below the Pacific Ocean.
The researchers had been searching for the wreckage of the USS Johnston – a US Navy destroyer that sank in 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Read more: World’s Deepest Octopus Discovered 20,000 Feet Under the Sea
Vanilla “Vader” woodlice
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A colossal, creamy-yellow woodlice relative with a vague resemblance to Darth Vader was discovered deep beneath the ocean’s surface in the Gulf of Mexico.
The newly discovered species, Bathynomus yucatanensis, was caught in a baited cage trap set at approximately 2,000 feet to 2,600 feet (600 to 800 m) below the sea surface. Scientists first thought it was a specimen of the closely related Bathynomus giganteusbut DNA analysis later showed that it was a species that had never been seen before.
At more than 10 inches (26 cm) in length, the creature is 2,500% larger than the closely related terrestrial wood louse, also known as a pill bug or roly poly.
Read more: Creepy deep-sea ‘vanilla Vader’ wood louse is 25 times larger than a land louse
Do you want to learn more about the deep sea? This year we also answered mysteries about why there are so many giants in the deep sea and what the deepest places in the earth’s oceans are.
