Little Creatures of the Deep [Slide Show]

A new robot successfully traps the larvae of exotic species living in the extremely deep ocean

News release • Scientific American

July 29, 2015 • Mark Fischetti

At more than 2,150 meters deep in the ocean, the water pressure is a crushing 220 kilograms per square centimeter. Oceanographers who have tried to snag samples of life in these pitch-black, frigid and high-pressure places have had to suck in water at high speed and try to filter out organisms, often damaging them in the process. But a team led by Duke University, the University of Oregon and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution last week snatched up the intact larvae of 16 different animals. (read more, slide show)

Mitraria:
This larva of a polychaete (segmented) annelid worm swims using a ciliated band. A bundle of long protective bristles protects its posterior. The juvenile develops inside the larval body and eventually emerges through a drastic metamorphosis.[ Less ] [ Link to this slide ]
Credit: Laurel Hiebert