At first glance at this creature, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a sparkly pair of fake eyelashes.
But the creature is very much real and was discovered at the junction of three tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean.
Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute spotted the animal while using an underwater robot to scour the seabed.
The animal is a polychaete – a class of marine worms, more widely known as bristle worms.
‘To describe this polychaete, one simply must use jazz hands — it is the only way to capture this deep-sea worm’s dazzle!’ the experts said in an Instagram post about the polychaete.
Footage of the creature has garnered huge interest on Instagram, with thousands of viewers flocking to the comments to discuss it.
One viewer described it as a ‘forbidden toilet scrubber’, while another called it a ‘deep sea Xmas tree’.
And one joked: ‘It looks like two eyelashes put together.’
The polychaete was spotted while ROV (remotely operated vehicle) pilots were exploring the Chile Margin.
‘The international science team is exploring along the margin, a nearshore deep-sea feature where a submerged continental shelf extends from the country’s west coast and drops steeply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean,’ the Schmidt Ocean Institute explained on Instagram.
‘It runs the entire length of South America due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the South American plate.
‘The confluence of tectonic forces and terrestrial influences makes this margin a natural laboratory for investigating chemosynthetic and deep-sea environments that host animals like this [queue jazz hands] shimmering deep-sea worm.’
In a video posted to Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Instagram account, the animal can be seen inching along the sea bed, with its iridescent bristles glimmering in the light.
Polychaete means ‘many bristles’, the experts explained.
‘Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia covered in bristles called chaetae,’ they wrote.
‘Some worms are bioluminescent, but this sassy sparkler has protein structures in the bristles that make them iridescent.
‘Polychaetes play a vital role throughout our global Ocean, from heat-tolerant extremophiles at hydrothermal vents to the bone-eating Osedax worms that cycle nutrients.’
Several viewers took to the comments to discuss the creature.
‘Idk y’all but that’s an alien,’ one user wrote.
Another added: ‘Thats a scrub brush for a sink.’
And one quipped: ‘Who is that Pokemon?’
The Chile Margin has been dubbed a ‘natural laboratory’, and has an intermediate water depth of about 2,652 to 3,281 feet.
During a 55-day expedition, which will end on 5 December, researchers have set out to map, sample, and characterise the deep-sea exosystems along the central-south Chile Margin.
‘Their research will advance our understanding of an essential area in the Ocean while strengthening efforts to manage and protect Chile’s waters,’ the Schmidt Ocean Institute explains on its website.
