The Deep Discoverer, the deep-diving robot that travels alongside the NOAA's Okeanos Explorer, discovered a mysterious, ghostly looking octopus species approximately 4,290 meters beneath the surface of the ocean last month. This depth makes it the deepest observation of a suborder of incirrate octopus, ever and its unique characteristics are leading some to speculate that it may be a newly discovered species.
Deep-sea octopods are separated into two unique groups: the cirrates, which are characterized by fins on the sides of their bodies as well as fingerlike cirri on the suckers located on their arms, and incirrates, which lack both of the above features and bear similarity in appearance to the common shallow-water octopus. Cirrate octopods have been located at depths of more than 5,000 meters, whereas all reports of incirrates are less than 4,000 meters.
Despite the similarities that the newly discovered creature shows to common shallow water incirrate octopods, the NOAA notes that this unique species has several traits that separate it from them, including suckers in just one series on each arm and a lack of the characteristic muscle tone. However, what is most noticeable is its inability to change color, something that most octopi can accomplish due to the possession of chromatophore pigments.
"It is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus," the NOAA wrote in a press release.
The discovery took place on Feb. 27, 2016, during its first operational dive to depths of over 4,000 meters just northeast of Necker Island, Hawaii. The purpose of the dive was to collect geologic information in order to determine whether a connection exists between Necker Island and Necker Ridge, the narrow features that expand for more than 400 miles past the current exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the U.S. In it's journey to gather this information, the robot stumbled upon the possible new cephalopod species.
The Okeanos Explorer has been travelling the world's oceans for several years and is the only federally-funded US ship designed to explore the depths of the ocean with the sole purpose of scientific discovery.
The NOAA plans to combine the current observations with other incirrate observations gathered by a German cruise in the eastern Pacific in hopes of creating a new piece of scientific literature.
