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Deep-sea Clams

April 29, 2014

Aboard the research vessel Atlantis, Peter Girguis and Jennifer Delaney of Harvard University extract the viscera of deep-sea clams collected from the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico by the human-occupied submersible Alvin. Girguis was chief scientist of an expedition in March 2014 to assess the newly upgraded Alvin, which had undergone a major overhaul that added new capabilities. Preserved samples of the clams will be sent to the Ocean Genome Legacy, which aims to archive the DNA of every marine species and make the data available to scientists.(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)