Scientists piloting remote submarines have captured fascinating footage of a giant phantom predator lurking in the deep waters of Monterey Bay, California.
Giant phantom jellyfish (Stigio Medusa Gigantea) Was captured by a marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Institute (MBARI) while floating quietly at a depth of 3,200 feet (975 meters). This is one of only nine times MBARI scientists have discovered elusive creatures in the lab’s thousands of submarine dives.
“The giant phantom jelly was first collected in 1899. Since then, scientists have only encountered this animal about 100 times,” MBARI said. Said in a statement..
Related: Photo: Creepy deep-sea creatures
One of the largest jellyfish on earth, the giant phantom is found in the deepest parts of all the oceans of the world. Arctic.. Still, MBARI says that sightings of creatures are still rare. Because it usually lives too far for humans and remote submarines to access.
According to MBARI, deep-sea inhabitants’ sun hat-shaped bells can be more than 3.3 feet (1 meter) wide and ribbon-like mouth arms can be more than 33 feet (10 meters) long. There is sex.
Little is known about phantom jellyfish, but scientists believe that jellyfish use their mouth arms to flow like a loose scarf in the wake, catching unfortunate prey and rolling it up to the mouth. Creatures pass through the depths of the pitch-black sea in periodic pulses from a faintly glowing orange head.
Prior to deploying remote-controlled submarines such as those used for this expedition, scientists often used trawl nets to capture deep-sea creatures. According to MBARI, this was ideal for studying some creatures, but not for studying deep-sea jellyfish.
“These nets are fish, crustaceans, squid“MBARI said. “But the jelly breaks into a gelatinous goo with a trawl net.”
Jellyfish are some of the most common creatures found in the deep sea, and their compressible, chunky jellies allow them to withstand incredible high pressures. However, many of the creatures without brains have not yet been discovered. Jellyfish were once thought to be of little importance in deep-sea ecosystems, 2017 survey According to MBARI researchers, these cnidarians are actually one of the most important predators in the dark, Cephalopods Squid, fish, and even Blue whale For food.
Originally published on Live Science.
A giant “phantom jellyfish” found off the coast of California that eats with your mouth arm
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