This Golden Orb Fooled Scientists

[00:00:00]This looked like an alien egg. It was something stranger.

[00:00:04]In the Gulf of Alaska, a NOAA robot found a shiny gold orb stuck to a rock about 2 miles down.

[00:00:11]The claw reached in, sediment lifted.

[00:00:14]Nobody could call it a shell, an egg, or a sponge with confidence.

[00:00:19]So, the sample went from abyss lights to a lab jar.

[00:00:22]The twist came later.

[00:00:25]The orb was not treasure and not proof of aliens.

[00:00:28]Researchers identified it as the base of a deep-sea anemone, Relicanthus daphne.

[00:00:34]The animal was gone, but the holdfast remained.

[00:00:38]That is the ocean's trick. It can make a living footprint look like a sci-fi prop.