The Hermes oceanographic mission ARCO was organized by CNR-ISMAR with the goal to identify and map yellow coral (Dendrophyllia cornigera) thickets up to 1 m high at intermediate depths (ca 200 m) in the region of the Middle Adriatic Depression (MAD). During ARCO, the area known to host corals was first mapped in detail and imaged by multiswath bathymetry, chirp and side scan sonars, revealing bottom features that were interpreted as potential coral mounds. A ROV survey however did not image as expected Dendrophyllia coral thickets emerging from the muddy area draping the topographic highs between the major depressions. Instead, bottom sampling (large volume grab, gravity corer etc.) recovered a large amount of dead ‘white corals’. A number of Pleistocene shells were also recovered from this site, including infaunal boreal species such as the bivalves Panopea norvegica, Pseudamussium peslutrae and the vagrant gastropod Buccinum humphreysianum together with unusually large axes of the octocoral Funiculina quadrangularis. Essentially, this region of the MAD seems a frozen-in-time latest glacial seascape.