this jelly is a cigar (cigar jelly)

A little deep-sea sparkle ✨

Bloody-belly comb jellies are ctenophores. Like other comb jellies, they swim by beating rows of tiny, hair-like cilia. The shimmering display in this video isn't bioluminescence—it's light from MBARI's ROV diffracting through those transparent cilia, creating a dazzling rainbow effect.

Spiny Turtle (Heosemys spinosa), juvenile, family Geoemydidae, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore

ENDANGERED.

As the juvenile turtle ages, the point serration of the shell becomes less pointy and pronounced.

Drift into the deep with these living fossils. 🌊

Feather stars and sea lilies are part of an ancient group of echinoderms known as crinoids. They are distant relatives of the sea stars and sea urchins that you might find in coastal tide pools. Feather stars cling to sponges, corals, and rocks with claw-like cirri, while stalked sea lilies anchor to the seafloor with a holdfast. 

For a hungry crinoid, the currents deliver dinner. Both feather stars and sea lilies have a crown of finely plumed arms. Those arms and their jointed branches are covered in tiny tube feet that help scuttle food into the central mouth.

MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles have captured the slow, mesmerizing movements of sea lilies swaying in the currents and feather stars paddling to fresh feeding grounds. We’ve spotted a wide variety of different crinoids, but identifying individual species from video alone is often difficult.