The Earth Story

An ocean mystery These samples recently created an interesting story. In 2014, researchers got round to examining the specimens from a 1986 dredging expedition between 400 and 1000 metres down, and found these preserved specimens in the collection. These mushroom-shaped organisms defied classification and were called Dendrogramma due to branching features observed in their caps. Because these were only preserved specimens, scientists couldn't conduct a DNA analysis to determine their origin, but in 2015 a research study collected 85 new specimens that could be used for genetic analysis. They were found to be related to the Siphonophores, a class of jellyfish that includes the Portugese Man-of-War. Loz Image credit: Plos One https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-36457841 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/04/two-unclassifiable-species-found-off-australian-coast Original article, free access: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0102976

Has God been found?

Those of us with a slightly warped sense of humour have derived enjoyment in recent years from the satirical religion known as Pastafarianism or the worship of the flying spaghetti monster, but they may have been revealing more than they realised, since an animal resembling their deity has turned up live and floating a thousand metres down in the sea off the coast of Angola. Filmed by a BP well maintenance team using a ROV, Bathyphysa confira is an example of a marine order called siphonophores.

These creatures are relatives of the polyps in corals and jellyfish, belonging to the phylum Cnidaria, and are colonial animals. The critter you see before you is not a single entity but a mass of cooperating cells, each of which have differentiated just enough to specialise, though they are bound together enough to count as one being, being unable to survive solo. Specimens up to 40 metres long have been spotted making them some of the largest critters on Earth. These predatory creatures are very fragile, and many are bioluminescent. Like jellyfish they capture prey with their oddly shaped tentacles.

As long as another tentacled deity that is reputed to live in a lost city deep under the Pacific Ocean near Ponape doesn't turn up in a camera, I can live with submarine irony gods.....

Loz

Image credit: BP screengrabs from their dive film.

http://bit.ly/1P72AvJ http://bit.ly/1UGOXqO http://bit.ly/1IMPjXy http://www.siphonophores.org/