Alien from Keystone

Jan K · Post by **Jan K** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:07 pm

Looking for some suggestions on this 3/4 inch long critter I encountered at Keystone. Shallow water, near surface, swimming backwards, some kind of shrimp? Not in my books...

Thanks.

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:45 pm

Awesome! And no, I haven't a clue what it is!

The angle of your picture truly looks alien. I suppose that if you see it's "legs" as antennae you can kind of see a shrimp head, but then the rest of it almost looks like dragonfly wings. The "legs" don't look like "regular" shrimp legs, and I suppose the alien's "head" could be a shrimp tail....

Amazing.... Great work as always Jan!

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:09 pm

OK, Jan.....you're creeping me out now!

WOW! I've never seen anything like this....at least NOT out of a sci-fi movie!!

You might try contacting Claudia Mills. She is a U.W. scientist specializing in gelatinous zooplankton, especially jellyfishes and ctenophores. Her base is at the Friday Harbor Laboratories up in the San Juan Islands. She is the co-author, along with David Wrobel, of the book, Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates - A Guide to the Common Gelatinous Animals

Here's her home page:

http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/

And here's her contact information:

cemills@u.washington.edu

I'd bet that she might have a decent idea as to what this is!

- John

Jan K · Post by **Jan K** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:41 pm

Thank you John for the lead, I e-mailed her the picture. Hopefully we get some answer to this and I will be able add the name to it, so others can learn too. And maybe get a better picture of it. My point and shoot camera shutter delay is not well suited for fast swimming, shy creatures, however alien then might be.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:54 pm

That is......creepy looking. Please tell us when you find out what it it!

Burntchef · Post by **Burntchef** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:56 pm

thats the alien from the abyss!!!! very cool movie. what ever it is it has to be what they modeled the aliens after. very cool

Sergeant Pepper · Post by **Sergeant Pepper** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:27 pm

I think it's a shrimp, but I'm not confident enough in my assesment that I want to go diving again until you tell us what it is.

jeff98208 · Post by **jeff98208** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:24 am

no clue on what it is! nice find though, when i dove keystone, i didin't see that.