🦑 Meet Planctoteuthis sp.! 🦑

This small, delicate squid is a bit of a mystery. The ocean is vast, and tiny, elusive animals are hard to study. Five species of Planctoteuthis have been described in the Atlantic, according to #SamplingGap Expedition Co-chief Scientist Dr. Jose Angel A. Perez from the University of the Itajaí Valley, Brazil. The long tail, with unusual filaments resembling a feather boa, is poorly described because net-caught samples are easily damaged. “Images have finally enabled the description of this tail, but no one knows what it is used for,” said Dr. Perez. “It looks like a siphonophore from a distance and one hypothesis is that it could be used for siphonophore mimicry.” While the expedition focuses on biodiversity hotspots along the seafloor at the Romanche Fracture Zone in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, Dr. Perez notes that the science team is excited for the “squid show” they observe whenever ROV SuBastian ascends and descends through the water. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute