Schmidt Ocean has posted new 4K video of a suite of amazing organisms from seamounts of the coast of Chile. I, however, strongly feel the video should have been accompanied by Chilean music. So set the Schmidt video to mute and play this instead or go here to this rather busy remix.

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As a questionable aside I now can’t get this SNL spoof commercial out of my head.

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The above photo is of Apolemia lanosa a type of siphonophore belonging to phylum Cnidaria that also includes corals and jellies.  It’s basically the ocean’s way of celebrating Christmas all year long.  Like many other Cnidarians, siphonophores bud new individuals—exact clones themselves.  In a manner similar to Christmas elves although this is not proven by science. In the case of some Cnidarians, the clones never leave home so family never has to travel for the holidays.  

In some Cnidarians, clones in the colony will specialize but among siphonophores the specialization is unrivaled. Clones will specialize for feeding, defense, locomotion or reproduction. The feeding clones catch food by tentacles equipped with cells that shoot out poisonous harpoons stinging and stunning their prey.  In the most popular of all siphonophores, the Portuguese man o’ war, with a large gas filled buoyant bladder adapted for catching the wind and sailing.  Interestingly, all the clones are attached via a single digestive and circulatory system.  Research is still needed on which clones are adapted for drinking eggnog, singing carols, and wrapping gifts.

 The species of Apolemiidae may be record holders for the longest animals on earth. Fragments of specimens of this family with a length of over 30 meters have been reported from the French Mediterranean coast in the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. In most physonect siphonophores clones are arranged along a central stem, it itself the founding clone developed from a single egg.  At the front end, is a group of clones that are propulsion clones. Basically, Santa’s reindeer if Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen were all budded from and identical to Santa.  In the larger and remaining region of a physonect siphonophore, one can find the clones for engaging in the spirit of Christmas, eating and…  New clones are formed in special growth regions of the siphonophore.  As new clones are formed the old clones get pushed down the line. But Apolemia species are special.  In addition to other clones Apolemia can also add new feeding clones along the entire length of the stem. This fact might be the reason why members of this particular family of siphonophores can grow to such tremendous length.

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I’ve been lucky enough to see a few live trachymedusae in my lifetime. They’re among the most beautiful jellies I know, with fascinating colors and structures. Why this jelly has two types of tentacles–those facing up and those facing down–is anyone’s guess. Perhaps a way to help it capture prey? But what might that prey be? We really don’t know.

So much left to learn and discover!

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7. Stingray eating a crab

9. Deep-sea crab eating a Giant Isopod

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New spectacular video of a enigmatic jellyfish is going viral across the internet (see below).  Although first collected in 1901 and scientifically described in 1910, the giant jellyfish,Stygiomedusa gigantea, is rarely collected or seen.  A paper in 2010 by Mark Benfield and William Graham found that only 110 observations of the species had been made from 1899 to 2009.  However while rare, Stygiomedusa gigantea is found in every ocean except the Arctic.  The lack of this large jelly in the Arctic likely reflects a lack of deep-sea exploration there as opposed to a true absence.

This jelly is likely one of the largest invertebrate predators currently in the ocean.  Current size estimates put the bell diameter around 0.5-0.75 meters (1.6-2.5 feet). The species actually does not have tentacles as we associate with other jellyfish. Instead what you see dangling down are oral lobes which can reach ~10 meters (32.8 feet) in length.  Benfield and Graham found two individuals in the Gulf of Mexico clinging to underwater structures and hypothesized the jelly uses its long oral lobes to hold on to and trap prey.

Although not all fish appear to be simply food for this giant jelly.  Drazen and Robison found that the small fish Thalassobathia pelagica swimming continuously swimming around the bell of Stygiomedusa gigantea. Interestingly, nematocysts of another jelly, the common moon jelly, could sting the fish but it was unharmed by the those of S. gigantea.

The latest video. I’m not sure what is up with the music.

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Recent work by Wagner and Opresko clears up the taxonomy for this coral genus, coming firmly down that these methuselah corals from Hawaii are a completely news species. Despite the misleading statements of some news pieces, the specimens were not recently collected nor recently discovered to be old.   Work back in 2009 by Rourke et al. confirmed these record holding lifespans using radiocarbon dating. The specimens were collected from 1971-2009 and have resided in the collections of scientists and museums. This does not detract from the recently published paper by Wagner and Opresko who clear up confusion because these specimens were previously misidentified or unidentified.

Because of this nobody also realized these corals are cooler than David Caruso.

Like other hexacorals, black corals have proteinaceous skeletons covered in tiny spines, polyps wit size non-retractable and non-branching tentacles, and being exclusively colonial. Another distinctive aspect is hexacorals possess six primary mesenteries, internal body walls that radially divide the polyps into compartments. Think of the dishes in Trivia Pursuit that hold the game wedges or rotelle pasta.Most black corals have six primary mesenteries and either no or four secondary mesenteries. But the species in the black coral family Leiopathidae are biologically blinged out with six primary and six secondary mesenteries. Just ignore the fact that the skeletal spines are poorly developed in the black corals. David Caruso? One mesentery and one spine.

The new species is christened Leiopathes annosa (annosa is Latin for long lived). I would have went with Leiopathes meliorcaruso. The defining characteristic compared to other Leipathes species is that the spines, diminutive though they are, are spherical and multi-lobed (see a in the photo above).  Multi-lobed. Yeahhhhh! The closest species in looks to L. annosa is L. bullosa. The spines are not multi-lobed in L. bullosa. L. annosa also has thicker and longer branches along with more and bigger polyps. Yeahhhhh!

So Leiopathes annosa is older and most definitely more awesome than a lot of other corals. And much better than David Caruso.

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