Pastel Pink Lobsters, Goofy-Looking Squid Among Deep-Sea Oddities Discovered in Ocean Abyss

August 22, 2025

3 min read

Researchers spied a wild array of life, including dozens of suspected new species, in an underwater gorge

By Ashley Balzer Vigil
edited by Andrea Thompson



A translucent orange glass squid floats in the deep sea. It has enormous eyes and tentacles protruding above its head.

ROV Subastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute

Two miles below the ocean’s surface, off the coast of Argentina, an underwater gorge plunges nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The trench and the nearby ocean floor are crawling with creatures that seem like they belong in an alien carnival, including a see-through squid with a hornlike appendage, pale pink lobsters, a lumbering king crab carrying 100 hitchhiking barnacles and a ghostly squid that hovers somewhere between goofy and grotesque.

. . .

In July and August scientists onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) spotted the oddities through the eyes of an underwater robot as they explored the Mar del Plata Canyon. Over the course of three weeks, the team recorded many strange and startling sights, including more than 40 species that may be new to science.



Patagonian lobsterette (Thymops birsteini) (unconfirmed) are crustaceans found on the continental shelf around South America, particularly in the Argentine Sea.ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC)

“The deep sea is a place full of life, not only in terms of abundance but also in the variety of species,” says the expedition’s chief scientist Daniel Lauretta of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences. One of his favorite areas was a large stretch of seafloor he nicknamed the “Beet Field” because it was covered in spidery red octocorals. A fan favorite for the millions who livestreamed the dives was a cheeky seastar that looked like the SpongeBob SquarePants character Patrick Star.



Many viewers thought this seastar resembled the SpongeBob SquarePants character, Patrick Star.ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC)

The researchers had visited the Mar del Plata Canyon in 2012 and 2013 but were then only equipped with trawls and fishing nets. They found hints of unique ecosystems and identified new species at that time. In revisiting the area with state-of-the-art technology, however, the scientists can develop a far more complete understanding of the region.

More:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-deep-sea-animals-discovered-in-underwater-argentine-canyon/