Pannychia moseleyi, a bioluminescent sea cucumber, photographed in a ship laboratory after being collected at a depth of about 1300 metres Manabu Bessho-Uehara/MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
A deep-diving submersible has discovered 10 sea cucumber species emitting light for the first time in their natural habitat.
The observations were “totally unexpected, like a spectacular movie,” says Manabu Bessho-Uehara at Nagoya University in Japan. In the control room on the research ship, “nobody could say anything except ‘wow’.”
Sea cucumbers are animals in the same phylum as starfish, found on the ocean floor all over the world.
Confirming bioluminescence…
