Rare Dumbo Octopus

Wallpaper Description:

It was back in 2005 when Tim Shank from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, aboard the Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition, first came across what looked like small tan golf balls attached to coral branches in the Northwest Atlantic, about 2,000 kilometres (1.2 miles) down.

He collected several samples with the expedition's remotely operated vehicle to try to figure out what they were.

"With each successive collection, it became apparent that this was some sort of an egg case," he said.

"The first few were open and empty, the next two contained a white gelatinous mass within, and the final collection yielded the specimen described in the paper."

He put it in a bucket of water in the ship's cold room, noting that the egg, about 14 by 19 millimetres, was unbroken.

However, by the time he went to remove the bucket from the cold room to examine the egg more closely, it had started to hatch, the inhabitant wriggling its way out posterior-first, followed by its fins and its tentacles.