Discovery of primitive creature

 Deep-sea vessel discovers primitive creature after 15-year quest

Scientists in the past have discovered creatures living beneath the bottom of the deep sea. Tubeworm larvae, sea snails and marine worms were uncovered living in tiny caves underneath the ocean floor, revealing life is interconnected below and above it. Experts from the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) onboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus saw four Palau nautilus individuals (Nautilus belauensis) in Palau, an archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean. The researchers scream and giggle when they realise what they’re seeing. “It’s finally happened,” one of them shouts. “It only took 15 years,” another laughs. The strange marine animal, spotted at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, is rarely photographed, let alone caught on video. 

Animal life is flourishing underneath the seafloor according to a new study of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, suggesting this mysterious landscape has complex ecosystems. "Being in the control van for our first sighting of this animal was pretty incredible,” says Jacob Ottaviani, video engineer and documentarian on this expedition, and Video Editor at OET. "Everyone was so excited, you could feel the collective energy and childlike joy, finally seeing something everyone had been hoping to see.”  According to OET, these are the first sightings of nautiloids from E/V Nautilus after 1,000+ remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives over a period of 15 years. It took the team 1,000+ remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives over 15 years to locate the nautilus/Ocean Exploration Trust, NOAA

Most of the seafloor remains a mystery to scientists, with only 26 percent of the global seafloor mapped, and research suggests it might be more populated than scientists thought. "In addition to the obvious milestone of seeing a nautilus while onboard the eponymous Nautilus, it was also surreal to encounter an animal whose body plan and behaviours have barely changed since the age of the dinosaurs,” says Samantha Wishnak, Expedition Leader and Operations Coordinator at OET. The nautilus is the most primitive cephalopod. There are 11 different species of chambered nautilus, which have different sections inside their shell that help them move around like a submarine.  In one of the videos, the strange animal moved along the seafloor using jet propulsion. “It’s chugging along,” one of the researchers comments. One of the biggest threats to deep-sea ecosystems is proposed deep-sea mining, the process of extracting mineral deposits, like cobalt and nickel, from the deep seabed, which scientists and conservation organizations oppose. Since seafloor ecosystems are likely interconnected, large stretches of the seafloor need to be protected. It’s unclear just how deep this subsurface habitat goes and how far it reaches horizontally, which is crucial to protecting the entire hydrothermal vent system beyond the visible vent itself.