Rare sea life found in mysterious underwater 'mountains'

Scientists recently traveled thousands of feet below the ocean's surface to explore underwater mountain ranges of cone-shaped dormant and active volcanoes with peaks rising 9,843 feet (3,000 meters) above the seafloor off the coast of Hawaii.

Living along these seamounts, Conservation International researchers spied enough quirky and unusual marine life to fill a Dr. Seuss book.

Their findings provide a window into some of the most mysterious spots in the ocean: Tens of thousands of seamounts extend across the world's oceans, but many have never been explored, and scientists are only just beginning to discover the complexity of the ecosystems they support, one of the expedition scientists told the Conservation International (CI) blog Human Nature.