Absolute darkness. Crushing pressure. Icy cold. The Pacific Ocean’s “midnight zone”—between 3,300 and 13,100 feet deep—is not a welcoming place. But that hasn’t deterred one delicate, baffling “mystery mollusk” species from setting up shop in this inhospitable water column.
For more than 20 years scientists at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have occasionally encountered this five-inch translucent creature with a bizarre medley of traits. Its face is surrounded by an oversized hood that it uses to enfold prey and jet-propel itself like a jellyfish. Its tail is fringed with tentacles, and if provoked, it can detach one. When touched, its hood and tail glow with a constellation of blue-green dots like an underwater planetarium. {read}