Shimmering deep-sea creature — a ‘headless chicken monster’ — spotted, video shows
From aboard their ship off the coast of Chile, scientists piloted a research vessel into the sapphire depths. About an hour into the dive, a white-ish blob emerged in the distance.
The grocery bag lookalike morphed into a shimmering flesh-colored creature as the submersible got closer.
It was a “headless chicken monster,” or deep-sea cucumber, Enypniastes eximia, Schmidt Ocean Institute said in a Feb. 7 post on Twitter, now rebranded as X.
Deep-sea cucumbers earned their nickname because they resemble “a chicken prepped and ready to be roasted,” the institute wrote on Instagram.
A video shows the “headless chicken monster.” Its body looks almost like a human heart and is covered in small white dots that give it a bedazzled look. It moves by lifting and lowering a parachute-like flap around one end of its body.
Unlike the more familiar worm-shaped sea cucumbers, deep-sea cucumbers are capable of swimming for “short periods of time,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Deep-sea cucumbers are found around the world and seen “fairly often” during Schmidt Ocean’s research dives, Logan Mock-Bunting, an institute spokesperson, told McClatchy News via email on Feb. 16.
“This one was very unusual as it appears to be covered in hydroid or jelly polyps, and that is something I have never seen before,” Mock-Bunting said.
Polyps are part of the life cycle of jellyfish and the related group of animals known as hydroids. The polyp stage comes before the animals reach their identifiable adult forms.
Scientists spotted the deep-sea cucumber on Jan. 16 during their expedition Seamounts of the Southeast Pacific off the coast of Chile, the institute said. The dive was live streamed on YouTube.
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 9:31 AM with the headline "Shimmering deep-sea creature — a ‘headless chicken monster’ — spotted, video shows."
