Australian oceans teeming with molluscs, seamounts

Our alligator-wrestling, vegemite-eating scientist comrades in Australia announced the discovery of 274 new species of sea creatures and 80 new seamounts, or undersea mountains, in waters off the coast of Australia.

"The richness of mollusc fauna found – such as snails, squid and octopus-type creatures – has been described by marine scientists as ‘astounding’ and requiring a complete rewrite of textbooks for this type of fauna."

Re-enactment of "A possible new species of Plesionika shrimp" being discovered

More pics and complete story

The Badassery of Dr. Robert Ballard Continues!

I'm Dr. Robert Ballard, and I say Chuck Norris is a Pussy. Yes, you can tell him I said so.

After taking a break from winning the Cold War and finding various lost undersea wrecks in his spare time, Dr. Robert Ballard has decided to continue making the oceans of the world his bitch! In the latest chapter of the Encyclopedia Badassica (aka Ballard's biography), he has been enlisted to locate the sunken sarcophagus of the mighty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure. The sarcophagus was lost over 170 years ago, when the ship bearing it from Egypt to England sunk off the coast of Spain. There is more adventure and daring in these past couple of sentences than in the entire new Indiana Jones movie. Hello, Hollywood? Why haven't you made a movie about the life and times of Dr. Robert Ballard yet?

This Just In: Robert Ballard Even More of a Badass Than Previously Thought

I find sunken ships for a living. What do you do?

For those of you who don't know, Dr. Robert Ballard is an oceanographer, underwater archaeologist, and general badass. He is famous for being the dude who discovered various sunken ships such as the Titantic, the Bismarck, JFK's PT-109, and others. He also used to train dolphins and whales for fun.

Recently, Ballard revealed that while searching for the Titantic, he was actually secretly working for the Navy in an attempt to locate the wreckage of sunken Cold War nuclear submarines. After he found the remains of the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, he then proceeded to make the North Atlantic his bitch and find the Titantic in 12 days. No big deal.