An inordinate fondness for bone-eating worms
May 7, 2018 – Researchers have named 14 new species and created a new family tree of bone-eating (Osedax) worms.
seafloor animals
A squid graveyard and a deep-sea buffet
Jan 31, 2018 – A recent paper describes an unusual discovery: dead squid littered across the deep sea bottom.
Newly described “parasol” sponges are graceful but deadly (to small crustaceans)
Sept 5, 2017 – Marine biologists describe three new species of predatory sponges that live in the depths off California and Baja California.
The pointy-nosed blue chimaera really gets around
Nov 4, 2016 – An unusual deep-sea fish that was previously identified in the Southeastern Pacific has recently been found to live around the Hawaiian Islands and off the coast of Central California as well.
Young king crabs found hitchhiking on sea pigs
Oct 27, 2016 – A recent paper shows that some juvenile king crabs hitch rides on wandering sea cucumbers, perhaps as a way of evading predators.
Deep-sea worms slither around the bottom of the animal tree of life
Feb 8, 2016 – The deep sea is full of strange and little-known worms. A new paper coauthored by MBARI molecular biologist Robert Vrijenhoek describes four newly named species of worms in the genus Xenoturbella that have mouths, but no eyes, brains, stomachs, or anuses.
A bountiful harvest of deep-sea acorn worms
Acorn worms have historically been thought of as shallow-water animals that live in burrows in muddy-bottom areas. Only four species were known to live in deep water. However, a recent paper by MBARI collaborator Karen Osborn and her coauthors shows that acorn worms live in the deep ocean environments around the world.
About MBARI
Research programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) encompass the entire ocean, from the surface waters to the deep seafloor, and from the coastal zone to the open sea. The need to understand the ocean in all its complexity and variability drives MBARI's research and development efforts.