A. scrobiculatus is covered with white, irregularly shaped, multipronged papillae which extend from the surface of its hood.

The "shaggy" periostracumon is present on freshly caught samples, and is thickly interlayered, resembling slimy hair.

Ward's colleague, Bruce Saunders, a geologist from Bryn Mawr College was the one who had initially sighted the organism all the way back in 1984.

A. scrobiculatus is primarily found in waters surrounding Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

It tends to live in a very narrow range at further depths (roughly 500–1,300 ft), eluding many researchers and scientists.