MONTEREY, Calif. -- More than two decades after spotting a mysterious, gelatinous, bioluminescent creature swimming in the deep sea, California researchers have announced that it is a new species of sea slug.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute posted video online of the new sea slug floating gently in the depths.
Using a remote vehicle, scientists with the institute first noticed what they called a mystery mollusk in February 2000 at a depth of 8,576 feet in the Pacific.
"With a voluminous hooded structure at one end, a flat tail fringed with numerous finger-like projections at the other, and colorful internal organs in between, the team initially struggled to place this animal in a group," the institute said in a statement last week.
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After reviewing more than 150 sightings of the creature and studying it in a lab, researchers determined it was a new type of nudibranch, or sea slug.
It lives in the so-called midnight zone, an area of deep ocean known for "frigid temperatures, inky darkness, and crushing pressure," the statement said.
The findings were published in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I.
Close Photos: 16 weird, never-before-seen critters that live beneath the sea
There's a delicate jellyfish, an eel with a strange head and a purple disco ball-like critter. And just in time for Halloween, there's a rare purple Vampire Squid, nicknamed for its red eyes and deep color.
Scientists reveal those things and more for the first time in these photos from the National Ocean Exploration Forum this week in New York.
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