Giant string creature found off Australia 

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Animals: Giant string creature found off Australia Giant string creature found off Australia Sydney At first sight it may look like an innocent string floating on the water. But it’s not. It’s a giant sea creature! Scientists on a research vessel spotted a giant creature that has been compared to a mass of silly string floating off western Australia. Researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's ship Falkor stumbled upon a beautiful giant Apolemia, a type of siphonophore, in the Indian Ocean off western Australia. The scientists are not sure of the exact length of the silly string-like creature, which was found in the Ningaloo Canyons at a depth of 2,070 feet (631 meters). However, based on the measurement of its outer ring by a laser-equipped drone, they estimate it was 150 feet (46 meters) long. Take a look at the creature here https://twitter.com/SchmidtOcean/status/1247231196347674625?s=20 Siphonophore are deep-sea predators related to jellyfish and corals that catch prey including tiny crustaceans, fish, and even other siphonophores in their curtain of stinging cells. The gelatinous colony is made up of thousands of individual, specialized clone bodies that work together as a team. It may be hundreds of years old, the scientists think. Know this? The creature is hunting in a "galaxy-like spiral" using some specialized clones to catch prey and others to digest it and send the nutrients throughout the entire colony.

At first sight it may look like an innocent string floating on the water. But it’s not. It’s a giant sea creature!

Scientists on a research vessel spotted a giant creature that has been compared to a mass of silly string floating off western Australia.

Researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s ship Falkor stumbled upon a beautiful giant Apolemia, a type of siphonophore, in the Indian Ocean off western Australia. The scientists are not sure of the exact length of the silly string-like creature, which was found in the Ningaloo Canyons at a depth of 2,070 feet (631 meters). However, based on the measurement of its outer ring by a laser-equipped drone, they estimate it was 150 feet (46 meters) long.

Take a look at the creature here https://twitter.com/SchmidtOcean/status/1247231196347674625?s=20

Siphonophore are deep-sea predators related to jellyfish and corals that catch prey including tiny crustaceans, fish, and even other siphonophores in their curtain of stinging cells. The gelatinous colony is made up of thousands of individual, specialized clone bodies that work together as a team.

It may be hundreds of years old, the scientists think.


Know this?

The creature is hunting in a "galaxy-like spiral" using some specialized clones to catch prey and others to digest it and send the nutrients throughout the entire colony.


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