Already nicknamed "Octosquid," this ruby-red creature has the body of a squid but with the eight tentacles of an octopus.

The scientists at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) caught this foot long enigma of the deep quite accidentally last week from one of their 3,000 foot deep pipelines that sucks up deep-sea water for their lab. It got caught in one of their filter tanks and stayed alive for three days after capture.

Along with the octosquid, three black rattail fish and four jellyfish were captured. All the others were dead except for the smallest rattail fish. It wasn't alive for long though since the octosquid ate it up. Jan War, operations manager of NELHA, said that the fish that come up the pipeline usually die when they get sucked up because of the rapid change in pressure. The octosquid wasn't affected though because invertebrates (creatures without a spine) aren't affected by pressure change.

The folks down at Hawaii are planning on ways to check the filters for their pipelines more often - a process which is usually done years apart - because they keep coming up with rather odd finds. They still have a starfish they don't know the species of and to this day is just labeled "animal." Pipelines that go down at different depths actually come up with different kinds of species. Who knows what else is down there? The depths are by large the biggest container of new and unknown life. Needless to say, the scientists involved are enthusiastic with the prospects.

Following the collapse and disintegration of the Larson A and B ice shelves in Antarctica, scientists have launched a 10-week expedition to explore the area and see what species dwell in the previously unexplored area.

Life has again proven its resiliency as over a thousand species were catalogued in the frigid waters off the part where the collapse happened. Interesting new creatures were found, such as a colorful octopus that looks like it was painted in the psychedelic era, a gelatinous sea squirt, sea cucumbers and some crustaceans.

Scientist Gauthier Chapelle, a member of the expedition described what they found as "virgin geography" and said "if we don't find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won't have any basis to know in 20 years' time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem."

This newly-discovered marine ecosystem became available for exploration when the ice shelves covering it were torn off the coast of Antarctica. Ice shelves are formed when glaciers inland creep out to sea over a long time and create a thick blanket of ice floating but still attached to the glacier. However, scientists say that global warming is rapidly changing the landscape in the frosty south.

In the past 30 years, about 13,500 square kilometers have broken away, drifted out to sea and dissipated in warmer waters. That's roughly half the size of New Jersey. As the terrain changes, the environment at the sea floor gradually adjusts. Some species survive the change while some die out. In some cases, new species start moving into the ecological neighborhood.

Sea lilies, sea urchins and sea cucumbers were found in this environment, but scientists noted that these species are not indigenous to the terrain. These creatures are usually found in much deeper waters but the disintegration of the ice shelves seem to have made the environment more viable for their existence.
 
Scientists pointed out that of all the species found in the expedition, 95 percent were native to the area while five percent were outsiders who moved in. In ecological terms, there has been a substantial change in the locale's biodiversity.

"Life at the sea floor obviously reacts very slowly to this very climactic change in the environmental conditions," said JulianGutt, head scientist of the International Polar Year expedition. "[It] needs hundreds to thousands of years until a new community has fully developed, if this will happen at all."

Gutt also pointed to disturbances caused by icebergs as a life-spawning event in the continent. Icebergs crashing against the shelves often leave a scarred terrain where signs of life seem to return.

     

Would you be interested in some invisibility cloak? Say, like what Harry Potter's got on him when he goes about the forbidden grounds of Hogwarts late at night? Or some camouflaging abilities, like Snake's in Metal Gear Solid? Well then, you'd most probably envy the octopus.

It is common fact that the octopus use its camouflaging abilities as self-defense from hungry predators in the ocean. The question is how do they do it? The answer to that mystery has now been found by scientists, and has even given birth to the idea that maybe, we humans could use and develop that technology for our own camouflaging powers.

The thing responsible for the octopus, squid and cuttlefish's "invisibility cloak" is leucophores. This can be found at the bottom layer of the octopus skin, and is composed of translucent, colourless, reflecting protein. Says zoologist Roger Hanlon, "Protein reflectors are very odd in the animal kingdom."

What makes this an even more pleasant surprise is the fact that these proteins actually reflect all wavelengths of light that hit at any angle. Now, that's precision. "These cells also match the intensity of the prevalent light," then explains Lydia Mathger, Hanlon's research associate. What this does is to help them blend into their surroundings.

As for the cuttlefish, the flat platelets known as iridophores in the layer lying on top of the leucophores are deemed to be responsible for giving some parts of the skin enhanced reflective properties. These platelets then enhance the brightness of the whiteness.

Now, the possibilities for future technology as we learn more about these properties are vast.  In fact, it's already being thought that we could do more than just mimic the color of our surroundings, but also, the creation of better optical fibres, for example. And who would be interested enough to invest money in not being seen? Hmmm...we're sure the military would be.