Science
Related: About this forum'Cascade Creature' - mesmerising deep-sea creature
(Video is without sound)
Via Pharyngula. At about 5,000 feet down. Best guess on the net is it's Deepstaria enigmatica.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)way below us.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)judy
(1,942 posts)that the creatures had begun to look like plastic bags??!!
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)1monster
(11,012 posts)The Early Show (afternoon movie). It scared the living daylights outta me, to be sure. I wouldn't go into our basement alone after that for months!
It sure does look like the Blob to me.
looked like Jello, didn't it?
My God! If my young mind had seen it looking like Jello, I'd have been traumatized for life!
(Now I have to go make sure there's no Jello in the fridge. Thanks a lot!)
Swagman
(1,934 posts)do kids have imagination today
1monster
(11,012 posts)And the coal bin (we had an old, old coal furnance) was dug out of the ground with just a door in the basement wall. Very primitive feel to it. It looked like the kind of place the Blob would hang out!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Ian David
(69,059 posts)Bizarre cascade creature undersea video
A fortuitous capture of a strange thing floating by a deep sea camera
Easily the most insane animal footage ever caught on an undersea camera.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle caught this creature floating around in the brine commenters on YouTube are positing that its a specimen of the Deepstaria enigmatica jellyfish, whereas other folks on Reddit are suggesting its errant whale placenta. Any marine biologists care to chime in?
Credit: @djvexd1 and @bayanimills on Twitter (THANKS!)
More:
http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/05/bizarre-cascade-creature-undersea-video/
tclambert
(11,080 posts)Or is it an old weather balloon that fell in the ocean?
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]That was my first guess when watching it, and it seems to be the case:
http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=zsao&id=2434
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepstaria_enigmatica
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Claimed it was whale placenta. It looks a lot like discarded placenta.
I was thinking it might be a discard plastic tarp, or bag. But it looked like it was going under its own power with some plan and seemed to be luminous.
Could be a placenta or some kind of jelly fish, a big one. IDK.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]The discarded plastic or placenta hypothesis could only hold up for so long. The length of the video made it apparent that the thing was alive.
Also, it seemed to me it was "showing off" for the camera, making itself bigger and creating the luminous areas, possibly to frighten off a suspected threat. It really was quite a show. Other creatures put on some pretty amazing performances as part of their defense strategy, so that was my impression.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Jelly fish now in the oceans killing off more desirable species as the ecosytem is changing. Not good for people, I guess. At first I nearly turned it off, thinking it was trash, but kept watching and saw what you say, definitely making a show and under its own power. But I thought I'd put that out there, just in case. These encounters, filmed at those depths, are something that none of us will ever personally see. There were markings in the video, but I could not surmise the actual size of it. Thanks.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Human activity is ruining ocean habitats and virtually eliminating some species, but the jellyfish seem to be thriving, and as you say, are helping kill off other species. Not a hopeful picture at all.
When I was a teenager, I had one close encounter with jellyfish at the Jersey shore. It was late August and the water was quite warm. I was headed out beyond the breakers to where I could actually swim and when I got there, I noticed all these little things brushing me. I looked closer and they were jellyfish about 1-2 inches in size. They didn't sting me, but the water was thick with them and they were getting inside my swimsuit. I completely freaked out and raced back to shore, showered and changed into dry clothes, and never went into the Atlantic Ocean again.
valerief
(53,235 posts)AmyDeLune
(1,846 posts)Cheney never had a heart!
valerief
(53,235 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)It also appears to propel itself like jellies or squid, squeezing water in one direction to propel itself in the other.
Very cool, thanks for posting. Just 4,930 feet beyond the recreational dive limits. Rats.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)What a fascinating creature!!! It moves gracefully and is so interesting to look at. I wonder what is the purpose of those yellowish sacks and the long tendril. Are they part of its digestive or reproductive system?
Very interesting, thanks for posting this video.