Study Identifies Golden Orb Found in Gulf of Alaska as Anemone Cuticle

A study awaiting peer review has identified a golden orb recovered from the Gulf of Alaska as the detached cuticle of the deep-sea anemone Relicanthus daphneae. The orb drew online speculation about extraterrestrial origins after its discovery. Researchers examined the specimen and found spirocytes, specialized cells present only in cnidarians, which eliminated earlier suggestions that the object was an egg or biofilm.

9 percent match to Relicanthus daphneae. The species can reach 30 centimeters in diameter and lives between 1,600 and 4,000 meters deep.

Re-examination of an earlier collected specimen revealed fragments of a multi-laminated golden cuticle around the anemone's base. Live observations showed that R. daphneae sheds this cuticle while moving across the seafloor, leaving pieces that can form capsule-like structures.

The remains did not match any previously documented structures of the species. The report states that the finding helps explain why no collected anemone has retained the golden coating. "These findings underscore the extent to which the biodiversity and organismal biology of obscure deep sea fauna broadly remain unresolved," the report concludes.

More than 80 percent of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored directly, according to scientific estimates.