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Deep Sea Jewelry?

July 29, 2010

Transparent as glass and just as fragile, a meter-long chain of salps loops into a crystal necklace for an Antarctic Neptune. These gelatinous animals filter food out of the ocean as they swim through it, migrating hundreds of meters daily from surface waters to the depths. Scientists led by WHOI biologist Larry Madin studied the reproduction, abundance and feeding of this species on a 2006 expedition to Antarctic waters.
(Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)