Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctica, Revealing Tentacled Creatures Beneath

In large part thanks to being in the right place at the right time, researchers discovered a thriving marine ecosystem underneath a 19-miles iceberg after it cracked off the ice sheet off the coast of Antarctica earlier this year. As the Washington Post reports, a team of researchers on board a vessel called the "Falkor (too)" — yes, that's it's name, including the parentheses — weren't expecting to find many signs of life on the seafloor following the powerful event. But to their shock, they found potentially dozens of new species trapped underneath, including crustaceans, octopi, sea snails, worms, and fish, per the WaPo — a powerful demonstration of how life can adapt to thrive even in some of the most extreme and remote areas of our planet. Footage released by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which facilitated the research, shows a baffling biodiversity, from long, tentacled anthropods to thorny red crustaceans. One image released by the Institute shows off a "helmet jellyfish," wh ... Read full article.