KimCureAll

Photo by Paul Naylor: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/sea-snails-and-sea-slugs/yellow-edged-polycera

I find this one to be quite awesome tbh.

Aww, you're welcome! Please post your favorites too!

It's best to wait for paleontologists to weigh in on this, and that has not happened yet, but I'm guessing the biologists are basing those ideas on previously discovered ferromagnesium-encrusted whale bones. You're right though, they are just shooting from the hip on this find.

It's a carrier crab with an upside down jellyfish on its back for protection.

Video notes: While exploring seamounts north of Kingman Reef, the crew of E/V Nautilus came across four fossilized whale skull bones! The first (featured in this post) was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video released June 8, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Video notes: While exploring seamounts in US waters north of Kingman Reef, our Corps of Exploration have come across not one, not two- but FOUR partial fossilized whale skulls! The first was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented by OET in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Video notes: While exploring seamounts in US waters north of Kingman Reef, our Corps of Exploration have come across not one, not two- but FOUR partial fossilized whale skulls! The first was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented by OET in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Video notes: While exploring seamounts in US waters north of Kingman Reef, our Corps of Exploration have come across not one, not two- but FOUR partial fossilized whale skulls! The first was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented by OET in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video released today, June 8, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Repost, word for word - here it is when it was first posted: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDepthsBelow/comments/geb885/lizardfish\_swallowing\_a\_surgeonfish/

This fossil was collected for analysis. The video was released today (June 8, 2023) so no word on any analysis, but it does seem the collection happened on May 28: https://twitter.com/EVNautilus/status/1662934610823585797

This video was posted today! June 8, 2023! I have not read any follow up to it, but I'll keep looking around. The ROV collected 4 fossil specimens all together.

Edit: I think the collection might have happened on May 28: https://twitter.com/EVNautilus/status/1662934610823585797

Video notes: While exploring seamounts in US waters north of Kingman Reef, our Corps of Exploration have come across not one, not two- but FOUR partial fossilized whale skulls! The first was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented by OET in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Video notes: While exploring seamounts in US waters north of Kingman Reef, our Corps of Exploration have come across not one, not two- but FOUR partial fossilized whale skulls! The first was sampled on Guyot 123 and identified as a fossilized portion of a beaked whale skull. ROV Hercules collected the sample over 2,100m below sea level. While age estimates are not possible from simple visual analysis, the bone has been laying on the seabed long enough to be encrusted by black ferromanganese crust indicating potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Similar to other fossilized beaked whale skulls documented by OET in the Central Pacific, this sample appears to be a jaw bone - an especially dense part of the skull.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4knunkK7ZU

Those sponges have a Dr. Seuss look to them, and those amphipods are like katydids in some ways.

The head is on the right where the solid red rhinophores are located. The "Christmas trees" are its gills. The cerata are red and white and the tail is on the left side of the picture.

Image credit: https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/48576-Okenia

Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okenia\_nakamotoensis

The red one (pic 3) is a female. Pic 1 is a young male and pic 2 is an adult male. They are all quite stunning.

The Bornean crested fireback (Lophura ignita) is a medium-sized forest pheasant from Borneo and the Bangka Belitung Islands. It is the type species of the genus Lophura. Prior to 2023, it was referred to as simply the crested fireback as the Malayan crested fireback (L. rufa) was lumped with this species, though both have since been split. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornean_crested_fireback

Image credits: https://ebird.org/species/crefir4