Scientists Identify 2023 Golden Orb Discovery as Base of Giant Sea Anemone in Gulf of Alaska

Scientists have identified a mysterious golden orb discovered in 2023 as the base of a giant sea anemone, following over two years of analysis, CBS News reported. The object, found thousands of feet underwater in the Gulf of Alaska, was spotted by a remotely operated underwater vehicle over two miles deep.

Described as a strange, golden, mound-shaped object with a hole in it and stuck to a rock, the orb was collected and sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for study.

Allen Collins, director of NOAA Fisheries' National Systematics Laboratory and a zoologist, said he thought routine processes would allow scientists to identify the object. 'This turned into a special case that required focused efforts and expertise of several different individuals, requiring morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise to solve,' Collins said.

Scientists discovered the unidentified golden orb-like organism on August 30 while operating a remote deep-sea diving vessel off the coast of Alaska.

They studied its physical structure and found it was a fibrous material covered with stinging cells like an anemone or coral. The stinging cells were identified as spirocysts, a specialized cellular structure that can capture prey. Spirocysts exist only on one group of aquatic invertebrates called cnidarians.

The research team compared the golden orb to a specimen collected in 2021 and found they were the same species. Initial DNA testing on the golden orb and the 2021 specimen was inconclusive. Whole-genome sequencing showed that the golden orb and the 2021 specimen were genetically almost identical to Relicanthus daphneae, a kind of cnidarian.

The golden orb had once been part of the base of a giant sea anemone. The full anemone has a pink-colored, cylindrical body that can grow to up to three feet across. The anemone's tentacles can be up to six feet long.

The anemone's stinging spirocysts are the largest among all known cnidarians. The golden object is usually hidden underneath the anemone but this one seems to have been left behind. William Mowitt, acting director of NOAA Ocean Exploration, commented on the discovery.

'So often in deep ocean exploration, we find these captivating mysteries, like the "golden orb,"' Mowitt said. 'With advanced techniques like DNA sequencing, we are able to solve more and more of them.