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In early 1990s, NASA sent jellyfish to space to test how spaceflight would affect their development. The jellies did not develop the proper gravity-sensing capabilities and had trouble figuring how to swim around in normal gravity, with abnormal pulsing and movement when returned to Earth.
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Even among all of the strange and mysterious group of ancient animals known as the jellyfish, the Deepstaria jellyfish is unique. A fact that has now been recorded on video by the Nautilus, a Pacific Ocean research vessel.
Fun fact: the Nautilus has also captured footage of a googly-eyed stubby squid and a weird purple orb.
Live Science reports that, halfway between the U.S. and Australia, the Nautilus spotted a jellyfish that appeared as a ghost….at first.
Then, it unfurled and they got a glimpse of the geometric mesh membrane that revealed its identity: Deepstaria. That, along with its distinctively flowing bell and lack of tentacles, are its most distinguishing features.
The rest of the video is the jellyfish changing shape, from what looks like a crumpled plastic bag to a blanket.
The jellyfish was first discovered by a submersible called the Deepstar 4000 (designed by Jacques Cousteau) in the 1960s, and since then it has only been spotted about a dozen times. Most of the details of its existence remain a mystery to researchers.
That’s not likely to change anytime soon, which makes this video all the more spectacular.
Science is so cool, y’all. Images like these make it pretty darn hard to disagree.
The post Scientists Captured Rare Video of Deepstaria, a Bizarre Jellyfish That Changes Shape appeared first on UberFacts.
Only people brave enough to spend time without immediate access to unlimited oxygen get to see the crazy creatures that lurk under the surface of the sea.
Luckily for the rest of us, some of those people go into the deep armed with cameras – which is exactly how Dan Abbott and Lizzie Daly dove into the Celtic Sea the day they ran across a giant barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). How giant?
It was the size of person.
Image Credit: Facebook
The giant barrel jellyfish is not the largest species of jellyfish in the world (that title belongs to the lion’s mane jellyfish, which can grow up to 120 feet from top to the end of the tentacles – about the length of a blue whale), but it is the largest species anyone could expect to run into off the Cornish coast.
Image Credit: Facebook
While the lion’s mane jellyfish has a sting full of neurotoxins, the giant barrel jellyfish’s translucent, frilly tentacles are mostly harmless (aside from a minor sting).
The one captured on film by Abbott, an underwater cinematographer, was about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.
Day 7 WILD OCEAN WEEK
| GIANT Barrel Jellyfish
Diving with a giant barrel jellyfish in Cornwall to celebrate the end of #WildOceanWeek
Posted by Lizzie Daly Wildlife on Saturday, July 13, 2019
“What an INCREDIBLE experience.” wrote Daly in a Facebook post. “Both Dan and I have never seen anything like it. I couldn’t think of a better way to finish the week in celebrating our incredible oceans.”
Image Credit: Facebook
If you’re hoping to have a similar experience, you’ll probably have to take up diving or snorkeling out at sea. These jellies rarely wander close to the coast, though they occasionally will, if lured by a large plankton bloom like the UK saw in 2002, 2014, and 2019.
Image Credit: Facebook
Make sure and check out the full Wild Ocean Week video if this sort of thing intrigues you – under the sea is definitely one of the last great frontiers!
The post Scuba Divers Captured a Photo of a Human-Sized Jellyfish appeared first on UberFacts.
A hydra, a freshwater cousin of the jellyfish, can survive being chopped in a blender. Its pieces will crawl their way back toward each other to reassemble as a complete organism. 00
A certain species of jellyfish has been deemed “immortal” by scientists who have observed its ability to, when in crisis, revert its cells to their earliest form and grow anew. That means that these tiny creatures, 4 mm to 5 mm long, potentially have infinite lives.
A tiny (1sq. cm) transparent Australian jellyfish has venom delivering tentacles a meter long, and whose sting causes Irunkandji syndrome, which induces feelings of impending doom, severe pain, and cardiac arrest.
Spotted on #NautilusLive at 790m near Baker Island in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, co-managed by @usfws @noaafisheries.