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Collect the Dots

Hydrothermal vents three miles down support a variety of life based on chemical energy. This image from a 2012 expedition to the Mid-Cayman Rise led by geochemist Chris German shows microbial mats that look like bird droppings clinging to rocks (top) and a newly discovered species of eyeless shrimp (lower right). Tentacled anemones (throughout image) catch and consume shrimp, and very small snails (white dots) graze on microbes on the grey sulfide rocks. The suction-tube sampler of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s ROV Jason collects a sample of snails (left center, just below Jason‘s manipulator hand). The red laser dots (bottom, right center) are 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) apart.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)