Siphonophore: Deep-sea superorganism (video)

Here is some terrific video of a bioluminescent deep-sea siphonophore — an eerily fantastic creature that appears to be a single, large organism, but which is actually a colony of numerous individual jellyfish-like animals that behave and function together as a single entity. The individual units, called zooids, all share the same genetic material and each perform a specialized role within the colony. The best-known siphonophore is the poisonous Portuguese Man o’ War (Physalia physalis), which lives at the surface of the ocean, unlike the one shown in this video (filmed at a depth of 770 meters). Some siphonophore species can grow up to 40 meters (130 ft) in length.

23 Responses to “Siphonophore: Deep-sea superorganism (video)”

  1. Googol

    Just a perfect coordination…

    Greetings from Spain :)

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  2. Wow. That thing is CREEPY

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  3. That thing is truly eerie. I remember seeing some Discover show about deep sea creatures recently, and many of them are pretty creepy looking.

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  4. LSK

    I’m with The Wizard.
    So Cthulhu-ish !

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  5. alan

    What artist / track is that playing? I dig those tunes.

    [Reply]

  6. Morfnblorsh Ayjinorp

    I think the scariest part, at least for me, is that according to the on-screen info in the video - this footage was taken in 1991.

    That thing could be 100s of times bigger by now!

    Ia! Ia! Shub-Niggurath!

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  7. Chris

    Behold His Noodly Appendages! :)

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  8. Bizarre and brilliant as always ^^

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  9. Batter with panko, and fry the sucker!!
    keep writing!

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  10. wow thats cool.

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  11. This is really amazing.

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  12. Cthulhu en una de sus miles de formas

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  13. Ok like that other one. the weird jellyfish type thing that looked like a a$$hole underneath but was a hoax…that was creepy. This is a lot less but that other thing i don’t care if it is fake what was the name of what they called that thing. this has to exist. didn’t terrify me and this thing did not blow up after taking a swig of coke.

    [Reply]

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