Alien shopping-bag ocean weirdo has glowing Cheetos for guts

Resembling an alien shopping bag with guts made of glowing Cheetos, a bizarre creature took center stage in new footage captured by a remotely operated vehicle deep in the Pacific Ocean. 

Gliding through the sea at a depth of some 7,221 feet (2,201 meters), the ocean weirdo — actually an unknown species of sea cucumber — had its innards on display in the new clip, taken in March by an ROV exploring part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument southeast of Honolulu. The ROV was gliding over an unexplored seamount at the Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll when operators spotted the creature, said Megan Cook, the director of education and outreach at The Ocean Exploration Trust's Nautilus Live.

"These are always so exciting and spectacular to see because —  just, what an incredible animal," Cook told Live Science. 

Sea cucumbers, or holothurians, are a diverse group, with many species distributed across the Central Pacific, Cook said. The one spotted by the ROV linked to the research vessel E/V Nautilus crew belongs to a family called Elpidiidae, she said. These deep-sea cucumbers are scavengers that feed on marine snow, a shower of skin cells, poop and bits of dead animals that filters down to the ocean floor. 

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