A video of a deep sea stubby squid — almost like a real-life octopus emoji — was going viral Monday after a team of experts spotted the googly-eyed creature off the Southern California coast.
A team aboard Exploration Vessel Nautilus encountered a stubby squid, also known as a Rossia pacifica, off the California coast at a depth of 2,950 feet near Big Sur.
The crew posted a video of the expedition starring the brilliantly purple creature with large eyes to its YouTube page last week. The footage shows the googly-eyed stubby squid perfectly still on the seafloor.
“They look like googly eyes,” said one team member.
Experts say the species is more closely related to the cuttlefish although it looks like a cross between an octopus and a squid.
“It looks so fake … it’s like some little kid dropped their toy,” said another.
But why the googly eyes?
These sea creatures dig into the ocean floor to hunt prey. They activate a sticky mucus jacket and burrow into sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes out to spot snacks like shrimp and small fish.
Stubby squids can be found in the Northern Pacific from Japan to Southern California up to 980 feet, but researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have also spotted them at 4,200 feet deep.
Visit http://www.nautiluslive.org to see live video from the ocean floor.