Three years ago, during an expedition at the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska, a submarine detected a golden orb that contrasted with surrounding rocks. Its smooth, organic surface did not resemble that of any known animal; the team immediately retrieved it for study. Now, at last, we know what it was.
The submarine retrieves the golden orb.
A recent study, which is still awaiting peer review, rules out the extraterrestrial origin social media users suggested at the time. The researchers conclude that the mysterious orb is in fact the organic remains of Relicanthus daphneae, a giant and rare anemone that inhabits the deep sea.
Relicanthus daphneae.
This species can reach 30 centimeters in diameter and live between 1,600 and 4,000 meters deep. Its biology baffles specialists because it does not quite fit the rules that define anemones and corals. Since its discovery, scientists have struggled to classify it, and its evolutionary origin remains uncertain.
Relicanthus daphneae moves across the ocean floor.
Before the study, there was nothing linking the golden orb to the giant anemone. The report details that an initial examination found spirocytes—ultra-specialized cells that only cnidarians (the group of animals made up of anemones, corals, and jellyfish) have. This finding ruled out the possibility that it was an egg or a biofilm, as initially thought.
The team then sequenced the DNA of the material to search for matches in databases. The complete mitochondrial genomes showed a 99.9 percent match to Relicanthus daphneae. The evidence pointed to the orb being part of a rare and poorly documented anemone. However, the remains did not match any known structures of this species or other anemones.
Close up of a cuticle detached from the anemone.
To solve the riddle, the researchers revisited a specimen collected years earlier and studied it again. They found fragments of a multi-laminated, golden cuticle the anemone had produced around its base. They then looked at live specimens and discovered that, as it moves along the bottom, R. daphneae leaves behind this cuticle, which remains on the rocks until it disintegrates or is buried.
Thus, the famous "alien object" in the Gulf of Alaska turned out to be the detached cuticle of a little-studied and deeply enigmatic animal. The finding made it possible to better characterize Relicanthus daphneae and explain why no specimen retained the golden coating: The anemone loses it as it moves, and sometimes that structure sinks and takes the form of a capsule that looks like something out of another world.
"These findings underscore the extent to which the biodiversity and organismal biology of obscure deep sea fauna broadly remain unresolved," the report concludes. According to scientific estimates, more than 80 percent of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved and unexplored directly.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
Source: Wired
