creatures

Those layers of soil compress into rock studded with the remains of forgotten creatures.

Haddock said the discovery highlights the importance of deep-sea exploration and the significance of using new technology to catalog previously unknown creatures.

Like winged creatures of the sky it draws its nickname from, the bird of paradise seems always ready for takeoff, angling itself toward the light of better tomorrows, or at least the possibility of them.

The mega coral - which is a collection of many connected, tiny creatures that together form one organism rather than a reef - could be more than 300 years old.

The coral is a species called Pavona clavus and provides a home to shrimp, crabs, fish and other marine creatures.