it looks like a sea urchin or even a pair of false eyelashes.
But the creature it is very real and alive and was discovered at the junction of three tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean.
According to the Daily Mail, researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute spotted the animal while using an underwater robot to explore the seabed.
The animal is a polychaete – a class of marine worms, commonly known as hair worms.
The creature’s video has garnered huge interest on Instagram, with thousands of viewers flocking to the comments to discuss it.
One viewer described it as a ‘forbidden piggal’, while another called it a ‘deep sea Christmas tree’. And one joked: “It looks like two eyelashes stuck together.”
The manatee was spotted while ROV (remotely operated vehicle) pilots were exploring the Chile Margin.
“The international scientific team explores along the Margin, of a deep sea coastal pointwhere a submerged continental shelf extends from the west coast of the country and falls sharply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean” explained the Schmidt Ocean Institute on Instagram.
“It extends the length of South America due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the South American plate.”
“The convergence of tectonic forces and terrestrial influences makes this margin a natural “laboratory” for the investigation of chemosynthetic and underwater environments that host animals like this glowing deep-sea worm.”
In a video posted on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Instagram account, the animal is seen moving along the sea floorhis iridescent hairs glistening in the light.
Polychaete means “many hairs”, the experts explained.
“Each part of the body has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia and covered by hairs called manes“, they wrote.
“Some worms are bioluminescent, but this insolent animal has protein structures in the hairs which make them iridescent”.
“The long-haired ones they play a vital role throughout our global oceanfrom heat-tolerant extremophiles in hydrothermal vents to osteophagous Osedax worms that recycle nutrients.”
