DEEP SEA

Our First Look at an Adorable Baby ‘Dumbo’ Octopus

Scientists have released the first footage of a baby “dumbo”—and it’s no elephant. This is an elusive deep sea creature whose name hails from the Disney character we all know and love for its ear-like fins that help its tiny body travel along the ocean floor. As it turns out, these little fins appear even…

Earth Science Yessenia Funes

The Deepest Living Fish Ever Recorded Has a Wonderful Smile on Its Face

Normally, if a story about deep water sea creatures comes along it involves horrifying abominations of nature that have been hardened by some of the toughest conditions for life on planet Earth. But a team of researchers from Japan recently documented the deepest living fish ever seen, and it almost seems like it’s waving hello…

Biology Rhett Jones

Breathtaking New Video Footage of the Ocean’s Uncharted Depths

Over thirteen thousand feet below the surface, hundred-foot hydrothermal vents spew black, 690 degree fluid like chimneys from the ocean floor. Tiny crabs, shrimp and limpets scuttle beneath the smokestacks, and a remotely-operated vehicle named SuBastian went down there recently to join them. After locating a new set of hydrothermal vents in a region called…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Bizarre New Deep Sea Creatures Found in Unexplored Hydrothermal Vents

Marine biologists have discovered six new animal species in undersea hot springs nearly two miles deep in the southwest Indian Ocean—an area already slated for future seafloor mining. Researchers from the University of Southampton and the Natural History Museum in London and Newcastle found the new creatures hiding around hydrothermal vents at a place called…

Tech News George Dvorsky

What Kind of Scary Creatures Are Hiding Deep in the Ocean?

The deep sea is home to creatures that are sort of normal but then have some sick twist that make them monstrous and so creepy you want to peel your skin off. A squid can’t be just a squid, it has to be a giant squid the size of a school bus. A shark can’t…

Sploid Casey Chan

Check Out the Seriously Gnarly Creatures at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench

Need a pick-me-up on this dreary Friday afternoon? After checking out some of the nightmare-inducing life forms NOAA’s deep-sea diving robot discovered at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, sleep will be the last thing on your mind. On April 20th, NOAA scientists working on the Okeanos Explorer dispatched their prized Deep Discoverer robot to…

Tech News Maddie Stone

The Future of Technology Is Hiding on the Ocean Floor

In March 1968, a Soviet Golf II submarine carrying nuclear ballistic missiles exploded and sank 1,500 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. Five months later, the US government discovered the wreckage—and decided to steal it. So began Project AZORIAN, one of the most absurdly ambitious operations the CIA has ever conceived. The potential payoff of Project…

Tech News Maddie Stone

This Team Discovers 14 New Species An Hour, But They Have An Enemy

You’ve heard that we know more about space than we do the deep ocean. But did you know it’s so unexplored that scientists discover new species just 200-500 feet down, sometimes at a rate of 14 an hour? A (sort of) manmade enemy threatens those efforts though, and they can’t kill, study, and eat it…

Tech News Laurel C. Allen

Holy Crap What Is This Writhing Deep Sea Creature?

Just what exactly is this strange deep sea creature? Before releasing it back into the sea, Facebook user Jr Saim uploaded this video. Can you tell what it is? Turns out its a really big Basket star, a member of a group of echinoderms called Brittle stars. Don’t be confused though. Brittle stars, which are…

Biology Jason G. Goldman

Explorer’s Awards: Apollo 11 engine recovery; SpaceX

Remember when we told you that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had recovered the Apollo 11 engines? In July 2013, conservationists found the serial number to confirm that yes, it really was Apollo 11 and not any of the other 12 Saturn V rockets. Tonight, the Explorers Club is honouring the entire Apollo F-1 Search and…

Commerce Mika McKinnon

Not even the deepest sea creatures will escape climate change

Climate models are now predicting a “staggering” catastrophe for deep sea marine life — a stark warning that even our planet’s most remote ecosystems are not immune from the ravages of climate change. The new study, led by the National Oceanography Centre, used various climate models to predict changes in food supply throughout the world’s…

io9 George Dvorsky

I can’t believe these creatures actually exist on our planet

Man, humans are boring. House pets aren’t much more interesting. Bugs can get kind of cool but they’re disgusting. Disagree with any of that? Well, check out these fantastic animals. They’re absolutely incredible. Translucent, colorful, oddly shaped, spiky, wiry, egg-like and completely out of this world even though they’re from our world. These animal photographs…

Sploid Casey Chan

Deep Sea Fauna with Googly Eyes

Today’s science website of note: Deep Sea Fauna… With Googly Eyes – a single-subject tumblr that takes weird-looking critters from the ocean deep and grants them +2 Charisma by equipping them with a pair (or more) of plastic eyeballs. It’s… surprisingly effective. Above, Lepidonotopodium piscesae stares at you with mouth agape. Below, Bathynomus kensleyi looks…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Should we be more critical of James Cameron’s deep sea dive?

The folks over at Deep Sea News recently invited a marine biologist, writing under the pen name “Dour Marine Biologist,” to provide some thought-provoking counter-observations to the media hype surrounding James Cameron’s dive into Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth. The guest blogger raises some important points about the scientific relevance of Cameron’s dive,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Abyss Box gives us our first ever chance to see deep sea organisms up close

We’ve long known there are exotic creatures at the bottom of the ocean, but the enormous difference in pressure makes it almost impossible to bring them up to the surface for study. That’s why the Abyss Box is so important. The Abyss Box is a tiny but massive tank designed to simulate the tremendous pressures…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

What the Hell Did Researchers Pull from the Depths of New Zealand’s Seas?

No, this photo hasn’t been ‘shopped. You are looking at a specimen from a barely-known and even-more-rarely-seen group of “Supergiant” amphipods—crustaceans that grow twenty times the size of their relatives and can measure a foot or more in length. Amphipods are often referred to as the “insects of the sea” and are found throughout the…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

New species of eyeless shrimp discovered swarming the deepest volcanic vents on Earth

Hydrothermal vents are epicenters to some of the most extreme geochemical processes on the planet. The hot spots of geological activity make their home on the ocean floor, where jets of scalding hot, mineral-rich water spew forth into the depths of the near-freezing ocean. Under the right conditions, these intense underwater processes give rise to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Behold the true colors of the North Pacific giant octopus

Water tends to absorb light in the red portion of the visible spectrum, often giving the subjects of underwater marine photography a blue-green tint that can wash out their natural colors. To get around this problem, photographer Mark Laita places his subjects in a decidedly unnatural setting, using tanks, studio lighting and black backdrops to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Our First Look at an Adorable Baby ‘Dumbo’ Octopus

The Deepest Living Fish Ever Recorded Has a Wonderful Smile on Its Face

Breathtaking New Video Footage of the Ocean’s Uncharted Depths

Bizarre New Deep Sea Creatures Found in Unexplored Hydrothermal Vents

What Kind of Scary Creatures Are Hiding Deep in the Ocean?

Check Out the Seriously Gnarly Creatures at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench

The Future of Technology Is Hiding on the Ocean Floor

This Team Discovers 14 New Species An Hour, But They Have An Enemy

Holy Crap What Is This Writhing Deep Sea Creature?

Explorer’s Awards: Apollo 11 engine recovery; SpaceX

Not even the deepest sea creatures will escape climate change

I can’t believe these creatures actually exist on our planet

Deep Sea Fauna with Googly Eyes

Should we be more critical of James Cameron’s deep sea dive?

Abyss Box gives us our first ever chance to see deep sea organisms up close

What the Hell Did Researchers Pull from the Depths of New Zealand’s Seas?

New species of eyeless shrimp discovered swarming the deepest volcanic vents on Earth

Behold the true colors of the North Pacific giant octopus

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

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