The ocean isn’t exactly filled with cute creatures. Fascinating, awesome, beautiful – yes. But cute? That’s mostly reserved for puppies and other small animals with fur.
As it turns out, the E/V Nautilus is just finding random ocean stuff left and right these days. A couple weeks ago the exploration vessel came across an unknown purple blob, turning Ocean Exploration Trust researchers into a scientific peanut gallery. Nobody knew what the blob was and their commentary during its discovery was pretty entertaining.
As for the vessel, it launched on July 24th to probe the Pacific through the middle of this month. The adorable googly-eyed animal that resembles a plush toy from Monsters Inc. more than a deep see creature was one of the Nautilus’ last entertaining discoveries. The species of bobtail squid is known as the Rossia pacifica, but scientists weren’t initially sure. It looks “like some little kid dropped their toy,” one of them says. And that’s about as good of a description as you’re going to get. The species typically lives around depths of about 1,000 feet in the Pacific but this one was found at nearly 3,000 feet, according to Time.
The commentary feels more like you’re watching a live podcast than observing scientific professionals at work. But can you blame them? Look at how friggin’ cute it is!
