Scientists who just returned from a survey of the Ross Sea near Antarctica have found giant versions of sea creatures, such as jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and a starfish measuring 2 feet wide! Some of the 30,000 specimens collected could be entirely new species.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ig8x2h8-QXCJlC9lHTVglsatgp-AD8VHPN080 -via Reddit
(image credit: AP/NZ IPY-CAML, John Mitchell)
A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.
It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."
The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ig8x2h8-QXCJlC9lHTVglsatgp-AD8VHPN080 -via Reddit
(image credit: AP/NZ IPY-CAML, John Mitchell)
Those big starfish could be the devolved descendents of Old Ones. You never know...
i personally think it’s a tragedy if those starfish are killed.
It doesn't say in the article if they killed those starfish. I hope not either, as it would have taken them decades to reach that size (there are also deep-dwelling fish such as Orange Roughy which live for decades but are still caught for food - a real shame).
At least that sounds good, so I'm sticking with it.