Photo of the Week: Larger Than Life

Artist Lily Simonson (right) and marine biologist April Stabbins celebrate after finishing a deep-sea mud mural of what may be a newly discovered shrimp species during the ROC HITS Costa Rica Margin Expedition funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Chief Scientist Erik Cordes from Temple University.

Some aboard Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's R/V Atlantis would like to call the species the unicorn shrimp, Simonson writes, while others prefer rhinoceros shrimp, elk shrimp, or narwhal shrimp.

The expedition is working to better understand the relationship between methane seeps and the broader deep sea. A methane seep is a spot where the clear, combustible gas naturally percolates through seafloor sediment, supporting a chemosynthetic ecosystem.

Representing Scripps Oceanography on the expedition are deep-sea specialists biological oceanographer Lisa Levin; biologist Greg Rouse, curator of the Benthic Invertebrate Collection at Scripps; Benthic Invertebrate Collection manager Charlotte Seid; and PhD student Jen Le.

Related Image Gallery: Photo of the Week 2017