IS IT A FLOWER ? ?

No, it's not a flower -- it's a sponge. Not just any sponge it's a predator, a carnivore. Light, feathery and colorful, what better way to capture your prey then to look like a harmless flower.

Once again more finds in the dark waters around Antarctica.

But the article says it better then I can, so read their words here:

'Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life, European researchers reported on Wednesday.
The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet , found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life.

Many belong to species found around the world, notably in the Arctic, while others appear to be unique to the deepest Antarctic waters, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.

The unique species tend to be the kind that do not spread easily, which suggests the deep, cold southern oceans may have been the source of many types of marine life, the researchers conclude.

"The Antarctic deep sea is potentially the cradle of life of the global marine species. Our research results challenge suggestions that the deep sea diversity in the Southern Ocean is poor," said Angelika Brandt of the Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum at Germany's University of Hamburg.

"We now have a better understanding in the evolution of the marine species and how they can adapt to changes in climate and environments," Brandt, who led the expedition, said in a statement.

Among the new creatures they documented are a gourd-shaped carnivorous sponge called Chondrocladia; free-swimming worms and 674 species of isopod, a diverse order of crustaceans that includes woodlice, also commonly called pillbugs, sea lice or sea centipedes.

Of the isopod crustaceans, 585 species had never been seen before.

Between 2002 and 2005, researchers sampled water and the sediment from 2,500 to 20,000 feet in the deep Weddell Sea and adjacent areas.

Their catch was surprisingly rich.

"What was once thought to be a featureless abyss is in fact a dynamic, variable and biologically rich environment," Katrin Linse, a marine biologist from the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.'

In the last few years I have been reading about new ocean finds more then ever before.
Looks like we are finally getting around to exploring our oceans. Maybe some day we will find that Mermaids and the Loch Ness really did (or do) exist.