Colorful, diverse marine life discovered

　 A sea anemone hitches a ride on a hermit crab in one of the "rare and exciting" new pictures released last week by a joint Indonesian-U.S. ocean expedition.(Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)

　 This ten-armed sea star, or starfish, was spotted by a remotely operated vehicle at a depth of about 880 feet (270 meters) on August 2. Most starfish species have five arms. (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)


　
　

　 Stalked sea lilies like the one above once covered the ocean. But the marine animals are now a rare sight, Verena Tunnicliffe, a deep-ocean scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, said in a statement. (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)
　
　

　 Sea Robin (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)


　
　

　 A free-swimming sea cucumber moves through the freezing waters of a 10,515-foot (3,205-meter) abyss in a "spectacular" image taken July 27, according to NOAA. (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)
　
　

　 A fleshy brittle star winds its arms through a bubblegum coral, as seen in an undated photo from the Okeanos expedition team. (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)


　
　

　 A hard coral spotted on August 5 was found on a seamount about 4,500 feet (1,400 meters) deep. (Photo Source:sina/National Geographic)

Scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed by colorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor — including plate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous.

They predicted Thursday Aug. 26, 2010 that as many as 40 new plant and animal species may have been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.