Thousands of Giant Eggs Found in an Underwater Volcano — and They’re Alive

Scientists exploring deep water off Vancouver Island found something that looked almost unreal: thousands of large egg cases scattered across a volcanic seamount. They were not fossils, decorations, or strange rocks on the seafloor. They were living eggs, sitting in a place scientists once thought was far too harsh to work as a nursery.

The eggs belong to the Pacific white skate, a rarely seen deep-sea species. The volcanic site appears to act like a natural incubator, using gentle geothermal heat to help the embryos develop in the cold darkness of the deep ocean. Some reports estimate the site may hold hundreds of thousands or even more than a million egg cases.