A mysterious ocean 'blob' has been recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera. The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta.While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.
Meanwhile it could be a whale placenta, but if that is the case then the hexagonal shapes on the skin are a mystery.If it is a jellyfish, it might be a Stygiomedusa Gigantea. This type of jellyfish - which can grow up to six metres in length - has only been spotted 114 times in 110 years, so details on it are scant.But again, the appendages get in the way.
Another suggestion is Deepstaria Enigmatica, another rarely-studied jellyfish, which like most of its kind is colourless.
However it has reported to have a brown stomach, with one description saying the passages to the stomach are 'somewhat irregular-edged, forming a reticulate network'.
Those markings lead one commentator on the website Snopes - which tries to debunk or confirm rumours - to suggest this is simply nothing more than a fishing net.
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MAY 11,2012 UPDATE:
Steven Haddock, a scientist for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif., says that the mysterious creature is a Deepstaria enigmatica jellyfish, much to the chagrin of some Reddit users who thought it was a whale placenta.
“This bag-like jelly is not that rare, but is large, so rarely seen intact,” Haddock said on his “JellyWatch” Facebook page. “In the video, the swirling from the sub makes the medusa appear to undulate and it even turns inside-out.”
This type of jellyfish is usually found in the south Atlantic Ocean, some 5,000 feet below. According to the Marine Species Identification Portal, the jellyfish has “oral arms terminating in curious hook-shaped organ[s].”
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