Red holothurian hovering above black lava outcrops

Close-up of a free-swimming holothurian sea cucumber, which feeds on the ocean floor, but can also swim freely in the water column, perhaps to avoid predators.

Translucent purple holothurian on seafloor. Gut is barely visible.

Front end of brown holothurian crawling on a sloping sandy seafloor

Pinkish orange holothurian crawling over sediment dusted rock outcrop

Red fan-like holothurian launching itself from a sandy seafloor

Thin white swimming holothurian over mud and sand bottom

Possibly a purple acorn worm on a rock outcrop

Bright yellow holothurian crawling over seafloor

Large white sea urchin with long white spines

Pink brittlestars, small white corals, and a vivalve on a brownish black rock outcrop at the rim of Paramount Seamount at the 400 m shallow zone. The rock is hypothesized to be fossil shallow-water corals.

A pinkish orange brittestar and delicate clear to white corals

Three long-spined white urchins on fairly fresh black lava rock outcrop

Arms of a pinkish orange brittle star.

A large orange and white eight-legged starfish on a rock outcrop

A large thirteen-legged brisingid starfish

An almost perfectly round, very long and thin-spined, pinkish orange sea urchin.

A purple starfish.

A brittle star wrapped around a coral bush

Two large brittle stars and a few small tubeworms in what might be a seep area

A large brittle star on a sandy seafloor

A large brittle star supporting itself over a sandy seafloor

A large brittle star with its armed raised upward

A large polychaete work on a rock outcrop

Many features similar to these have been found on Ocean Exploration cruises.

Red fish? salp? siphonophore?

Weird jellyfish?

Weird jellyfish?

Weird jellyfish?

Weird creature in water column.

Usual view in the perpetual blackness of the abyss. Can you find the curly-cue creature in the lower left of the image?

Siphonophore on right, comb jelly on left.

Translucent jellyfish

Swarm of larvae encased in jelly-like mass with jellyfish in distance. Marine snow, the detritus of creatures living and dying further up in the water column, falling to the seafloor below.

Long siphonophore, jellyfish, and marine snow

Spider-like jellyfish

A swimming polychaete worm, with long squid-like tentacles used for breathing, undulates through the water column.

A swimming polychaete worm, with long squid-like tentacles used for breathing, undulates through the water column.

A swimming polychaete worm, with long squid-like tentacles used for breathing, undulates through the water column.

Pink jellyfish hovering above rock outrcops

Dandelion-like siphonophore. Look closely for long appendages streaming from central animal colony. These appendages help anchor the animal in one place.

Dandelion-like siphonophore. Look closely for long appendages streaming from central animal colony. These appendages help anchor the animal in one place.

Dandelion-like siphonophore. Look closely for long appendages streaming from central animal colony. These appendages help anchor the animal in one place.

Dandelion-like siphonophore. Look closely for long appendages streaming from central animal colony. These appendages help anchor the animal in one place.

Dandelion-like siphonophore. Look closely for long appendages streaming from central animal colony. These appendages help anchor the animal in one place.

Long chain siphonophore. Sometimes these colonial animals attain 50 meters in length.

Acrobatic galatheid crab bending over backwards on black coral bush.

Galatheid crab on rock outcrop

Squat lobsters and a large crab are among the various types of fauna in this image.

A highly diverse animal community with squat lobsters, various corals, a large brittle star and a deep sea fish right at the bottom of the image.