Inspiration comes not only in all shapes and sizes, but from literally anywhere... and all of us at NOTCOT have a particular fascination with the inspiration from nature (ok some more than others, since Justine picks nature over design with her phd studies!)... So when we heard about the new deep sea species found in Antarctica, and then found these high res images and video of them, we swooned. And realized we HAD to post them. Here's what we found out from the Australian Antarctic Division: "The return of the last of three Antarctic marine science research vessels marks the culmination of one of Australia's most ambitious International Polar Year projects, a census of life in the icy Southern Ocean known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). Australia's Aurora Australis and collaborating vessels L'Astrolabe (France) and Umitaka Maru (Japan) have returned from the Southern Ocean, their decks overflowing with a vast array of ocean life including a number of previously unknown species collected from the cold waters near the East Antarctic land mass." Some of the shapes and curves of these are just incredible... don't those tunicates look like glassy hearts? Lots of imagery after the jump!

TO PAGE 2 of "Aurora Australis' New Species in Antarctica"! ----->

Tags: animals - antarctica - nature - ocean - photography - sea - underwater