Unknown species spotted at Whytecliff

[Whopperhead]

If you do go down there again- Take a Camera! Pictures are worth a thousand words. Or at least 5. "See, I told you so"

[laminar]

Of course, in low light, colours would seem black. So it could have devilish red eyes!

[cdavis]

Sure seems like it could be something new, or maybe very very old. The only thing shaped roughly like this critter, with a hard shell., big eyes, hard to see limbs, and segmentation are horseshoe crabs and some of their relatives that supposedly died out hundreds of millions of years ago. Horseshoes are way too slow, but what about their relatives? Check out some paleontology illustrated texts and see if anything looks possible.

Connor

[Fondueset]

It looks like a giant marine copepod - or a relative of trilobites etc. My guess is there were swimmerettes along the underside. Possibly a brain sucking neuro parasite, russian submersible - or your spirit guide.

[laminar]

I found it!

[Mullins]

Looks like an isopod - there are many species and they're quite widespread, but I don't know how they propel themselves...

[Mullins]

Originally Posted by Whopperhead

If you do go down there again- Take a Camera! Pictures are worth a thousand words. Or at least 5. "See, I told you so"

A speargun would have been even better

[Pablo]

how about a pelagic trilobite of some sort? shape wise it seem some thing alike.

Evolutionary trends in trilobites (scrolling down to pelagic forms)

[Nikkey]

Intresting find Eric! Have you looked at any synziphosurines species? If not there are some examples here :
Palaeos Metazoa: Arthropoda: Chelicerata: Merostomata: Xiphosura
I don't know if they swim or crawl, but worth taking a look at them.

[harbour seal]

Hey Eric,

i am intruiged by your mysterious encounter at whytecliff and have not been able to find anything matching your description in my various taxonomy books either. having no luck on my own i had a good friend of mine, who is a marine biologist, read through the thread and look at your diagram.

a little background: he has been conducting research/working for the last 15 years all around the province (freshwater and marine ecosystems). additionally, he worked as the curator of the marine collection at the royal british columbia museum in victoria for a few years after grad school, and is an avid local scuba-diver to boot.

anyway, given the information provided the best he could offer was a parsimonious guess: cuttlefish.

based on their abiliity to change the shape, colour and texture of their skin/bodies it is at least possible that a locally-found species could be mistaken to have a hard, white interlocking exoskeleton, in the overall body-shape described.

too bad you didn't have a camera at the time. have you had any further encounters? or epiphanies of your own on the identity of this mystery creature?

cheers,
sean
vancouver, bc

[efattah]

Doug Sitter has a friend who may have been able to identify it, though I haven't gotten word yet on what the ID is.

As I was so unbelievably close to the creature for many seconds, I can say with almost total certainty that it had an exoskeleton.

[harbour seal]

exoskeleton certainly narrows down the options:

- given the mobility likely not any mollusca (e.g., not some type of chiton), or at least any that i am aware

- arguably leaving arthropods --- specifically, isopods or shrimp seem likely candidates; however, most local species are both too small and don't tend to move in the fashion witnessed in the whytecliff creature.

Crangon communis - common two-spined crangon

i found a photo of this shrimp in one of my texts, in which it vaguely resembles the shape/colour/eyes you described; however, 8cm is the top of it's size range and (in my limited experience) shrimp tend to display characteristic and recognizable motility. i don't think this is what you saw but it is the best candidate i found thus far.

possibly the creature has extended it's range farther north and thus not previously described in this area. for example, in 2004 the infamous humbolt squid literally invaded our waters (off northern washington and southern vancouver island) in substantial numbers. prior to that time it had not been recorded this far north (outside of the odd single and infrequent occurance usually washed ashore). perhaps these occurances may be "adjustments" to the effects of climatic shift?

if you figure it out be sure to let us know.

cheers,
sean