News: First observations of living Ruby Seadragons

Last year, we went on an expedition to the remote areas of the Recherche Archipelago in Western Australia. We used a remotely operated vehicle to be our eyes under water. After several days of rough weather, we were lucky and spotted two Ruby Seadragons. Their habitat is quite different from the kelp forests that the other seadragons occupy. At 54 meters (177 feet), we found the Rubies to roam in a sponge garden. Check out the paper and footage in the supplement!

Media coverage on the sightings

Press release of Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Articles on the footage:
International coverage:

Video of the anatomy of the Ruby Seadragon

The skeleton of the Ruby Seadragon visualized with a micro computed tomography scan. The scan consisted of several thousand individual X-ray slices, which were stitched together to form this three-dimensional model.

Press voices on the initial discovery

Ruby is among the coolest species discovered in 2015 according to Newsweek and sci-news and was elected one of the Top 10 Species 2016 

Wonderful Science Friday article by Alisa Opar

Washington Post by Nick Kirkpatrick

Scripps Institution of Oceanography press release

Sydney Morning Herald article and great video compilation by Andrew Darby

IFLScience article

Art

Squidtoons noticed the similarities of seadragons and the dragons in Game of Thrones.

Digital art by Adi Khen.

Ruby, the "precious gemstone", is featured in another Squidtoons piece.