It’s one of those crazy, strange looking things that appeared out of the darkness much to the scientists’ surprise. Is there anything extraterrestrial about it? Or it is another homegrown wonder of the sea? CryptoVille investigates!
In 2016, postdoctoral (probably a doctor now) researcher Cristiana Castello Branco spotted this creature looming out of the darkness. She analyzed its skeleton and discovered it was previously unknown to science.
So she named it Advhena magnifica. In Latin Advhena means alien. Everyone else calls it the “E.T. sponge” because it looks much like the little alien from the famous movie, especially the big holes in the crown which look like big eyes perched atop a long neck.
A.magnifica is part of a family of creatures called glass sponges. They normally attach themselves to hard surfaces and munch on small bacteria and plankton that happen to float by.
Branco discovered the creature 2.4 km (1.5 miles) below the ocean’s surface, on an area known as the “Forest of the Weird.” It sits about 1368 km (850 miles) southwest of Hawaii. Scientists tell us it’s a prehistoric stretch of seafloor rock that has been sitting deep down under all that water for millennia. In fact, scientists dated the rock back to the Cretaceous Period (65.5 to 145.5 million years ago.)
I know I keep saying it, but we live in a truly extraordinary world.
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