>> We're at 1,150 feet and
250 feet off the bottom.
>> NARRATOR:
Unchanged for eons, the dark,
alien depths and miles
of unchartered territory
of the deep sea
tease the curious
with their unexplored secrets.
>> Every time you go down
in the submersible,
there's always something
that's a surprise.
Every submersible dive
is a discovery.
>> My favorite thing
is seeing some things
that I didn't know existed
before.
>> NARRATOR:
Much of what lives in the deep
is little known or understood.
This includes
a group of animals
few people
have ever heard of,
some of which seem eerily
like an outstretched hand
reaching from the grave.
While others look
like a field of flowers.
>> From the first moment
I learned about crinoids,
I've been enthralled
with them.
I just think
they're beautiful organisms.
>> Crinoids are the sea lilies
and feather stars.
They're one big group
of the major branch
of animal life called
the echinoderms,
which includes the sea stars,
sea urchins
and sea cucumbers.
>> Crinoids are often
referred to as living fossils
because the forms that exist now
are very similar
to some forms that existed
during the age of dinosaurs.
They've been around
for a very long time.
>> Crinoids are found
all over the world.
There are Arctic and Antarctic,
and tropical crinoids.
There are some species
that are found
as shallow as just below
the low-tide mark,
and there are crinoids
in the deepest ocean trenches.
>> My belief is these guys
don't have natural deaths.
They die due to predation.
In other words,
they will live virtually forever
if you let them.
>> NARRATOR:
What remains to be discovered
about these living fossils?
What can modern crinoids
tell us
about their ancient relatives?
>> Major funding for this
program was provided by:
The Batchelor Foundation,
encouraging people
to preserve and protect
America's underwater resources.
And by Divers Direct
Emocean Club,
inspiring the pursuit
of tropical adventures
and scuba diving.
# #
>> NARRATOR:
Roatan is one of the bay islands
lining the Honduran Coast
in Central America.
It is on the southern tip
of the Mesoamerican Reef,
making it a popular
vacation destination
for scuba divers.
# #
Not far from
the island's shore,
a wall plunges
into the depths,
making the area
a perfect place
for deep sea exploration.
>> In terms of the
geographical set up,
it's just absolutely ideal.
# #
>> NARRATOR:
Submersible builder and pilot
Karl Stanley, who runs
the Roatan Institute
of Deep Sea Exploration,
set up shop
on the island's west end,
from where he motors
his submersible "Idabel"
across the bay
and then drops down
into the deep.
>> The deepest I offer trips
to the public is 2,000 feet,
but I've been to 2,660.
I actually designed this
for 3,000 feet.
>> NARRATOR : While the majority
of Karl's customers
are tourists with
an adventurous spirit,
his operation has also drawn
the attention
of marine scientists interested
in exploring the area.
>> I came to Roatan
based on a photograph
that Karl Stanley,
the submersible pilot,
took and posted
on his website.
>> NARRATOR: Dr. Charles Messing
is a professor
of Nova Southeastern
University's
Oceanographic Center
in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
>> We've just passed 1,000 feet.
No photosynthesis down here.
>> NARRATOR:
He has spent the majority
of his scientific career
studying
a little known group of animals
called crinoids,
some of which occur
only in the deep sea.
>> No one doubts that crinoids
are very obscure organisms.
The vast majority of people have
never heard of a crinoid.
Well, maybe they've heard
of the fossils,
but a sea lily?
What's a sea lily?
Is it some kind of flower?
Who knows?
>> NARRATOR:
The photo he saw online
featured one of the species
he studies.
>> What we know
about the biology of crinoids
is still pretty limited.
Well, we can certainly motor
along at that depth
and see if you can find them.
>> NARRATOR: So, together
with his collaborators,
he began conducting research
from Karl's sub in 2012.
Their goal is to answer
some basic questions
about the animals,
such as how long
they might live,
how fast they grow
and so forth.
>> I am particularly interested
in sort of aspects
of the function of organisms.
How do they work?
Sort of an engineering
perspective to biology.
>> About 185?
>> 185!
>> Famous last words?
See you later.
>> Water?
>> Water.
>> Still camera?
>> Still camera.
>> Snuggie blanket?
>> Snuggie blanket.
I feel like a professional.
>> Any time here we're going
to be going through
the thermocline,
which I also like to call
the free
air conditioning zone.
Now, we just need
to go straight down,
get neutrally buoyant
and start exploring.
>> Okay, we are on the bottom,
a big, yellow feather star
hanging down.
>> NARRATOR: Of the about
640 species of crinoids
found in modern seas,
at least 17 occur in the waters
off Roatan.
They include
the flowerlike sea lilies,
feather stars,
and the rather strange-looking
holopus.
>> There are three species
of holopus--
two here in the Caribbean
and one in the Pacific--
and they all look
pretty much alike.
When they're expanded,
they look like a little hand
with a very stout wrist.
And, basically, the wrist
is cemented on to the substrate.
There's no stalk.
And, of course, it's a complete
ring of ten arms,
but they look like fingers,
and they look like a gauntlet.
Like armored gloves.
And when they close,
they close up completely
and tightly,
so they look like a fist.
>> NARRATOR:
The arms allow crinoids to feed.
>> All crinoids
are suspension feeders.
They rely on small plankton
that drift by.
And they all have at least
five feathery arms,
and the side branches
of the arms
are called pinnules,
like a feather.
And along those pinnules
are tiny, little finger-like
structures.
And as the plankton drifts by,
these little fingerlike feet
just flick passing particles
of plankton into a groove
with microscopic hairs.
And that carries the particles,
like a conveyor belt,
down to the mouth
in the middle.
And the mouth
is right down in the base
of what would be the center
of the flower.
They have a complete gut,
with the mouth and the anus,
down in the middle.
They have a nervous system,
but no brain.
And they produce eggs and sperm
just like other animals.
(groans)
(laughs)
>> NARRATOR:
While diving in the sub,
the experts collect specimens
for further study.
>> Our sampling apparatus
is very, very simple.
It's basically a net
on the end of a stick
that we can scrape along
the substrate
and pop a couple of these
holopus off.
Bingo!
Wonderful.
>> NARRATOR:
Once back at the surface,
the specimens are preserved.
>> This is a holopus.
It gives you an idea
of how large the animal is.
It's about as big as they get,
and, of course, its arms
are all folded together.
You can see where
it cements onto the rock face
by its stump.
We are going to use
a series of preservatives
on some of the smaller pieces
for molecular work.
We're going to subject
the tissue to DNA analysis,
to try to understand
the evolutionary history,
who's related to who,
and develop an overall
family tree of crinoids.
The first family tree
of crinoids
using DNA sequences was
published about ten years ago,
but it only had a handful
of species.
So, we're continuing
to collect.
Now we're also looking
at RNA.
We can take little pieces
of the pinnules,
put them into
a particular solution
that will preserve the RNA.
And that we can use to look
at which genes are active.
>> NARRATOR:
Active genes reveal
how an animal is responding
to its environment.
For example, they may indicate
which genes are involved
in digestion, and the DNA
sequences of these genes
will help unravel
the evolutionary relationships
among different species.
Not all specimens
can be collected with a net.
>> We have a suction tube
that is powered
by one of the submersible's
thrusters,
and we can suck crinoids in.
>> NARRATOR:
With this suction tube,
the scientists collect
sea lilies,
feather stars, as well
as a potential predator.
>> In deep water,
we've discovered
that there's this sea urchin
that will prey on crinoids.
We know it does
because one of my colleagues
has found the skeletal pieces
of the crinoids
in the guts
of the sea urchins.
>> NARRATOR: The scientists
are particularly interested
in what is eating
and attacking crinoids.
>> Primarily,
what we're doing in the sub
is trying to look
at populations of crinoids
at different depths,
and we're looking
at the frequency
of regenerating arms
in each one of those
populations.
So, essentially,
the idea is that
in shallow water environments
where they're better
illuminated,
you would expect to see
more crinoids
with regenerating arms
because they're
being attacked more often
than you would in deep water,
where there is less light.
There, you would expect
much lower rates of encounters
with predators,
and you would expect to see
fewer regenerated arms
as a consequence.
>> Sea stars can regenerate
an arm that they've lost.
Crinoids are masters
of regeneration also.
They all start out
with five unbranched arms
when they're
really, really small.
But what happens then
for the ones
that grow more arms is,
they will drop an arm
and regrow two or four.
And they'll also drop an arm
in response to predation.
>> They've developed places
in the arms
that are analogous
to a lizard's tail.
So, a lizard's tail
is thought to function
as an escape strategy.
During a predatory attack,
it'll give up its tail
in order to escape.
Crinoids do something similar,
both in their arms
and in their stalks.
>> They can also regenerate
the lump of tissue
in the middle
that has the gut.
And so, if there's stress
or predation,
they can regenerate
the whole thing,
lock, stock and barrel.
>> There is no evidence
that they will
just sort of naturally die.
>> I may not be able to get it
because of the slope, huh?
>> We'll see.
>> NARRATOR:
While some species of crinoids
are permanently attached
to the bottom,
others have developed
the ability to move around,
likely as a response
to predators.
>> The majority
of fossil crinoids
and a number of living crinoids
have a stalk
that cements
to hard substrates,
and a few of them
have a root-like structure
at the base of the stalk
so they don't move around.
Other stalked crinoids,
a whole family of them,
have hooks along the stalk,
and they use them
as grapnels to attach
to hard substrates.
But they can actually
release them and lie down
and crawl around
with their arms.
And the feather stars retain
a little circle of hooks
with which they attach
to hard substrates.
And they can release them
and crawl with their arms,
and some of them
can actually swim.
The sea lilies
that we find here in Roatan,
we've got two species of them
so far
that have hooks
along the stalk.
Both of them can lie down,
detach and crawl away.
Let me get a shot
in the distance.
>> NARRATOR: To see how crinoids
grow and regenerate,
the experts take lots of photos
and record video,
which they compare
from year to year.
>> So, what we've established
are some locations
where we go and we'll return
to those over time.
And for these
deep-water organisms,
that's rarely done.
And so we hope to get a lot of
information about recruitment,
you know, the sort of
birth-death rates,
growth rates, and a variety
of other things--
interactions with other
organisms, predators;
fatalities due to predation.
So, we are pretty much
set on at least a five, six year
time frame at this point.
>> So when you look up,
you're seeing the edge
of the second wall,
and right now
that's 250 feet above us.
>> Karl's knowledge
of the local area
is quite amazing.
I mean, he's been here
for years,
and what he does is he'll drop
down to a certain depth.
You tell him, "Well,
these crinoids we're looking for
are in 1,100 feet."
So he drops down to 1,100 feet
in a certain area
and just motors along.
There you are.
>> My biggest navigational aids
are a compass,
which basically allows me
to know if I'm going
away from the wall
or towards the wall,
and then I have a fish finder
that tells me
how far off the bottom I am
and everything else
is based off of my memory
of the area.
>> How far is it to the fan?
>> We're halfway there.
>> NARRATOR:
Pilot Karl has been fascinated
with submersibles
from a young age.
>> I got started
when I was nine years old,
reading a short story.
And at that age, I said
I was going to build a sub,
started making drawings
that I still have.
>> NARRATOR: At age 15,
Karl started building
his first submersible,
which he completed
during his senior year
of college.
He operated that submersible
in Roatan for two years
before designing
his current sub.
>> "Idabel" is a completely
original design.
She's made of three spheres
of three different sizes.
The largest sphere
is four and a half feet,
and that's where
the passengers sit.
And that used to be part
of another submarine
that had been built in the '70s
for North Sea oil work.
I have fully redundant
propulsion systems,
separate battery banks,
four motors in the back
and separate switching systems
so that I can lose
any component
of my propulsion system,
battery, wiring, motor--
and it happens,
couple times a year probably--
and my passengers
never even know
because everything
is completely redundant.
That's one safety aspect
right there.
The other is, if you flood
the two ballast compartments
with air,
you're going to have
over 1,500 pounds
of positive buoyancy.
And then, you also have
a 450-pound lead weight
under the sub that you can
turn one bolt
from the inside and release.
So, then, basically,
you can have
a ton of positive buoyancy,
and you also have
vertical thrusters
that give you
another couple hundred pounds.
And then, I also carry
three days of air on board.
>> NARRATOR:
As of July 2013,
Karl had made more than
1,150 dives in "Idabel,"
including those with Chuck,
Tom and Forest.
>> I've been studying stalked
crinoids since high school
and yesterday was the first time
I was able to see one alive
and in its natural environment.
So, here you are studying
fossils for 20 years,
and you never see
the living form.
It would almost be like
someone who studied dinosaurs
since they were a kid
and then just happen to have
the opportunity to see one.
And so that's essentially
what happened for me
is I got to see my dinosaur,
my living fossil.
One of the reasons
that I love the fossil record
is because it gives you
a deep time perspective
that you can get
really in no other way.
It gives you an opportunity
to really study
how the oceans have changed
and how predator-prey dynamics
have changed.
>> NARRATOR:
Studying modern crinoids
can help answer questions
about their ancient ancestors.
>> Crinoids first appear
in the rocks
about 500 millions years ago,
and they have existed
in the oceans since that time.
There are at least
6,000 species
preserved in the rocks
that have been described.
Crinoids were most abundant
during the Paleozoic era,
which is the era that precedes
the age of dinosaurs.
>> The time we refer to
as the Mississippian--
340 million years ago--
was a time of great diversity
and abundance,
so it's thought
to be the peak
of their sort of
evolutionary success.
And during that time,
we had many, many crinoids
living in shallow seas
as well as deeper seas.
>> They were the
dominant organisms
in some of the ecosystems
back then.
Just miles and miles
of crinoid meadows.
>> At the very end
of the Paleozoic,
just before
the age of dinosaurs began,
there was a mass
extinction event,
>> What's called the "granddaddy
of all extinctions":
the Permo-Triassic extinctions
250 million years ago.
It's been estimated
that 95% of all species
that have lived
became extinct at that time.
Crinoids suffered heavily.
And, in fact, there is a gap
in the record of crinoids.
We see fossil crinoids
below it,
certain number of millions
of years,
and above it we see
just one.
We start off
with just a single taxa,
and it is believed to be
the ancestor
of all modern crinoids.
So, out of a group
that was incredibly diverse,
a single one
squeezes through.
And then it gives rise
to this modern-day diversity.
>> NARRATOR:
Crinoid fossils can be found
all over the world.
In the U.S.,
they are particularly common
in the Midwest.
>> I actually grew up
in Burlington, Iowa,
which is often referred to
as "the crinoid capital
of the world."
It preserves the remains
of about 350 species
of fossil crinoids.
>> Because about
300 million years ago,
that area
was a vast inland sea.
And there are tens of thousands
of square kilometers
of what we call
crinoidal limestone,
which is limestone
made primarily
out of the fossil remains,
sometimes tens of meters thick.
>> NARRATOR: And the discovery
of living crinoids
even played a part
in the beginnings
of modern oceanography.
>> Back in the middle
of the 19th century,
the general consensus was that
no life could exist
in the deep ocean.
>> NARRATOR: Then, in 1864,
a young fisheries officer
named Georg Sars dredged up
a sea lily off
the coast of Norway.
His father, the zoologist
Michael Sars,
realized it looked
very similar
to an ancient fossil crinoid.
>> This excited a lot of people,
because this suggested
that ancient forms of life
could exist in the deep sea.
Now, Charles Darwin
had just published
"The Origin of Species"
a couple of years before that,
which suggested
that organisms evolved
in response
to a changing environment.
If the environment
doesn't change,
they're not going
to evolve as fast.
There's no natural selection
pressure for them to do so.
>> NARRATOR:
After the discovery
of the ancient-looking sea lily,
scientists petitioned
the British Admiralty
for a ship to conduct
further research.
Eventually, that led to the
HMS "Challenger" expedition
in the 1870s.
>> Which was the
first round-the-world,
oceanographic expedition.
>> Karl?
>> Yeah?
>> If you can move the sub up
so the lasers
flank that specimen,
and I will try
to get a photo
with the lasers in there.
There is generation,
I can see that.
That is very cool.
We are looking at a holopus
I photographed last year,
and it was missing
a couple of its five rays.
And I can see regeneration
there.
Here, you can see
our scaling lasers.
Our scaling lasers
are ten centimeters apart.
That's about four inches.
And so, we can get
an absolute measurement
of how much growth
has actually taken place,
and that's a step.
And next year,
we'll absolutely know
what the exact rate
of growth is.
And it's really interesting
because we know
almost nothing
about these animals
apart from what depth range
they growth in
and where they're found.
So, this is the first
little piece of biology
that we've been able
to discover
about these animals.
>> NARRATOR:
Once back in the lab
in Ft. Lauderdale,
Chuck creates drawings
of the specimens
collected in the field.
Together with
the DNA analysis,
this will help
to better identify species
and understand
their basic biology.
>> For example,
this is the stalked crinoid,
one of the stalked crinoids
we collected in Roatan.
And it turns out
that there are three or four
different names of species
for crinoids that look like this
all around the Caribbean.
And it's not clear
where one species ends
and another one begins.
So, we're going to try to do
some detailed illustrations
and measurements
and try to figure out
what species it actually is.
We'll also have to compare it
to some museum specimens.
When I look in the microscope,
I see the image
of the critter
and my pencil and the paper,
and I can make
an extremely accurate tracing
of this species.
And the reason I do this,
there are structures here
that don't show up
terribly well in a photograph.
For example,
the details of the sutures
between some of the
skeletal pieces
are almost invisible
in a photograph.
I might publish
both a photograph
and an illustration like this
to show the important parts.
And there you go.
>> You ready to go?
>> We're ready to go.
>> NARRATOR:
Much remains to be discovered
about the seemingly strange
and astonishing life forms
of the deep sea.
>> Look at that.
This is the first time,
<font color = #FFFFFF>as far as I know,</font>
that this has been observed.
>> NARRATOR:
These little-changed organisms
provide a window
into the earth's past.
>> Crinoids are survivors.
They are beautiful organisms
that outlived the dinosaurs.
And there's much to be learned
by using both the rock record
and the living record together
to try to understand
the evolution and ecology
and history of a group
of animals.
>> Major funding for this
program was provided by:
Encouraging people
to preserve and protect
America's underwater
resources.
Inspiring the pursuit
of tropical adventures
and scuba diving.
And by the
Do Unto Others Trust.