By Susan Milius
Scientists working in waters off California have captured deep-sea jellyfish relatives waving little spikes that glow red.
In the black ocean depths, plenty of creatures glow, but most of those that had been examined shine in blues and greens, says Steven H.D. Haddock of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif. He notes that biologists have assumed that deep-sea creatures can’t see red wavelengths, which don’t travel far underwater. Haddock names only one other group of red-luminescing marine animals, the scaleless dragonfish.