Minesweeper Radiolarian Protist! | Nautilus Live #shorts

Our first highlight from the NA149 expedition in and around the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is something extra small, but extra special. This radiolarian protist, Tuscaridium cygneum, forms colonies building an intricate mineral skeleton with needle-like pseudopods to aid in its buoyancy, keeping this compact creature (less than 2 cm wide) afloat in the deep sea. Spotted while exploring an unnamed guyot approximately 200 nautical miles north of Kingman Reef, this little critter stumped our control van team until experts ashore help verify its identity as a Tuscaridium protist- not a Minesweeper game icon! Bonus fun fact: Did you know many deep-sea single-celled organisms are bioluminescent? Although not detected through the ROV Hercules camera view, this species glows when disturbed! The US waters surrounding Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll are home to some of the most pristine marine ecosystems on Earth. While recent expeditions have increased our baseline knowledg