It looks uncannily like something you’d expect to see on Sesame Street – and not on the seabed 900 metres down.
The amazing video of the googly-eyed squid has gone viral after it was spotted off the coast of California by a research vessel.
The stubby squid was spotted by the the E/V Nautilus, which uses a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the ocean floor.
The amazing video of the googly-eyed squid has gone viral after it was spotted off the coast of California by a research vessel. Stubby squid live in the Northern Pacific between Japan and Southern California, and are usually spotted at a depth of about 300 meters.
As the drone sub approaches the cephalopod, the team can be heard trying to determine at first whether it is an octopus or cuttlefish.
As the see it, even the scientists are amazed.
‘They look like googly eyes … It looks so fake!’ one woman exclaims in the video.
‘It’s like some little kid dropped their toy.’
Two others in the video comment that the eyes look as though they were painted on.
The team then dissolves into laughter while watching the animal, while one admits ‘it’s freaking me out!’ and the other says ‘maybe its a cuddlefish!’
The team later determined the cephalopod was a Stubby squid — also known as Rossia pacifica — which is closely related to cuttlefish, according to a description of the video posted by the team that captured the footage.
‘This species spends life on the seafloor, activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish,’ the description on the E/V Nautilus YouTube page read.
It was spotted in Trask Knoll, a NW-SE elongated hill located south of Santa Rosa island, in the outer California borderland.
It is about 20 km-long and ~400 m-high.
Little is known about this feature, except that it appears to be bounded to the west by a fault, the Trask Knoll fault.
Earlier studies indicate that Miocene sedimentary rocks cover most of Trask Knoll, but at the center is a metamorphic rock of unknown age.
It is not the first strange creature spotted by the sub.
Last months a mysterious purple orb sucked off the sea bed during a live-streamed Nautilus exploration has stumped scientists, and naturally the internet too.
The squid bears an uncanny resemblence to a children’s puippet. pictured, Sesame Street’s Snuffleupagus on GMA.
Can you spot it? Even researchers were stunned by the find, one exclaiming ‘It’s like some little kid dropped their toy.’
Inquisitive viewers of the YouTube video have made multiple guesses as to its origins, ranging from an ‘alien egg’ to a brand new species of Pokemon.
In fact it is more likely the bright orb, found by the Channel Islands of California, is a type of marine mollusc.
Mysterious: Live-stream footage from the underwater explorer Nautilus captures a strange purple orb
At least that is the current view of scientists who in all honesty are not completely sure, and it could take several years before they find out.
In the video a team of researchers with the Ocean Exploration Trust are seen scouring the seabed with the floating laboratory Nautilus.
‘Can we have a look at that dark purple blob on the left there,’ says a female member of the team.
Zooming in the camera picks up the bizarre glowing orb hanging from a rock shelf.
One scientist says ‘Ooh what is that?’ Another responds: ‘I actually have no idea.’
The globe, which looks like a squidgy stress ball, also attracts the attention of a curious crab.
The red crustacean crawls over and strokes the orb, which also has a soft red centre.
Operating the machine the researchers decide the take the specimen in for a closer examination, deciding upon suction as the most appropriate method.
Controlling a robotic hoover, notably wrapped up with duct tape, they move closer.
Can you spot it? A member of the research team asks to zoom in on the orb seen here in the top left corner
‘Can we have a look at that dark purple blob on the left there:’ They zoom in for a closer look near California
After some minor adjustments they successfully suck the sphere into the laboratory before the footage cuts out.
Underneath the footage viewers have eagerly begun posting their thoughts on what it could be.
One wrote: ‘Is it an alien egg?’
And along a similar line another posted: ‘They didn’t tell us because it was aliens.’
While one user wrote: ‘My dog’s chew toy! We lost it at the beach some time ago! My dog says she’d like it returned please…. just throw it, she said.’
The purple globe, which looks like a squidgy stress ball, also attracts the attention of a curious crab
My precious: The red crustacean crawls over and strokes the orb, which also has a soft red centre
Multiple viewers have also joked that it could be a Pokemon, one suggesting: ‘These Pokemon Go locations are getting ridiculous.’
Currently the best rational guess is that it ‘could possibly be a new species of nudibranch,’ according to the Nautilus Live website.
‘This unidentified purple orb stumped our scientists on-board. After sampling, it began to unfold to reveal two distinct lobes,’ it added on the page.
A nudibranch is a mollusc that has a soft body and is noted for its amazing range of colours and forms. There are over 2,000 species currently known to man.
Controlling a robotic hoover, notably rapped up with duct tape, the team moves up to suck the orb off the floor
Yet on their YouTube channel the researchers wrote: ‘We won’t know definitively what it is for a while. It could possibly take years for scientists to determine if it’s a new species.
‘Our team preserved the sampled specimen and it will be sent off to a lab for further investigation.’
In response to troll comments about the team who operated Nautilus they added: ‘Each team in our ship’s rotation have different missions and goals, and most definitely have different personalities.
‘We love that these personalities shine through in our videos! With the right attitude, anyone can be a scientist!’
