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The discovery, made by a remotely operated underwater vehicle from NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Division, has left scientists baffled — they still don’t know who might own the mysterious golden object, Focus writes.
The object was found “tightly attached” to a rock covered with white sponges, researchers noted. The strange golden sphere is about ten centimeters in size and has a strange hole on the front. The team that discovered this phenomenon has never been able to determine who owns this strange golden sphere.
Initially, scientists thought they had found the egg shell of a mysterious species, a dead sponge or coral. The holes in the mysterious spheres suggested something might be trying to get through or escape from the golden sphere.
More than a year has passed since the mysterious golden egg was found on the seafloor, but scientists still can’t determine what species it might belong to. Kerry Howell, a deep-sea ecologist at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, said she and her colleagues are still inclined to believe that the golden sphere is the egg of some species. At least its structure suggests so: the shell is fleshy and has no obvious anatomical structure. A hole was also found in the sphere, which suggests that something entered or left the sphere. However, scientists admit that this mysterious sphere is not similar to any egg scientists have seen before.
If the mysterious sphere is indeed an egg, scientists are curious to know what species it belongs to. Interestingly, the sphere is quite large and does not look like a simple “egg” at all.
Fortunately for science, a year ago scientists were able to use a robotic arm and carefully retrieve a mysterious object from the seafloor. The most interesting thing is the size of the sphere and its origin, the study authors note. The fact is that usually oviparous animals lay eggs, but this time scientists did not find any other mysterious golden spheres.
Sam Candio, research coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ocean Exploration Center, said that although scientists were able to salvage the mysterious sphere from the depths of the ocean and bring it aboard, the team still couldn’t identify it. The only thing that can be determined is that the golden sphere is of biological origin. Although this discovery puzzles scientists, it reminds us how little we know about our own planet.
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