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Sunday, July 20, 2008

Photo: Strange Sea Creatures Found in Antarctica


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February 20, 2008—Looking like glass tulips, these tunicates are actually animals—early seafloor colonizers in areas of the Southern Ocean recently disturbed by iceberg scouring.

Scientists say these plankton-eating tunicates that can grow up to a yard (meter) tall. In the Southern Ocean they were found "standing in fields like poppies," said Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led a recent expedition to take a census of Antarctic marine life.

Photograph by Martin Riddle/Australian Antarctic Division