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Barreling Through the Ocean

An amphipod known as a Phronima is often cited as the inspiration for the alien queen in the 1986 blockbuster movie “Aliens.” It inhabits the sac-like body of a barrel-shaped salp, eating the nutritious parts of the salp as it moves inward and then laying its eggs. The translucent salp may provide the mature Phronima and her eggs with extra buoyancy and shelter as it swims and drifts through the ocean. WHOI scientists recently studied this and other deep-sea creatures aboard the research vessel Henry B. Bigelow as part of their exploration of life in the Ocean Twilight Zone. (Photo by Jennifer Berglund, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)