Introducing our newest (unofficial) video series: Deep-sea animals you’ve never heard of. 🤓
This braided beauty is a polychaete worm in the genus Travisiopsis. Polychaete worms are common in the ocean. These worms have segmented bodies with paddle-like feet or parapodia on each segment. Most have bristles, or chaetae, that they use for defense, crawling, or swimming.
Approximately 8,000 species have been described so far, but many new species are still being discovered. Some of the most beautiful and amazing polychaetes can be found in the midwater. This individual was captured on camera by the ROV Doc Ricketts at 678 meters (2,220 feet) deep.
It’s actually a jellyfish! With the terrifying name Stygiomedusa gigantea!
the arms of the largest known specimen were almost 33 feet (10 meters) in length 🙂
The edge of the bell seems to reflect red light in these photos, or maybe it appears red because that’s the thinnest part of the bell and all of the tissues might technically be red, just so deep it looks blackish; red is invisible to most deep sea animals!
MBARI has studied the deep waters of Monterey Bay and beyond for more than 30 years. In our thousands of dives to these dark depths, we’ve seen this species fewer than 10 times. But we were so enamored by this curious creature that we featured it in our logo.
See that massive mouth? Food is scarce in the deep sea, so a gulper eel’s oversized mouth helps it swallow any morsel of food—big or small—that it comes across. Scientists think the glowing tip of this eel’s sinewy body might act as a luminescent lure to attract unsuspecting prey, and then—gulp—it becomes dinner.
The midwater doesn’t offer any places to hide from hungry predators, so it’s eat or be eaten in these waters. Many fishes there have evolved inventive strategies for finding food, like sharp teeth, gaping jaws, and big bellies. MBARI scientists have been studying deep-sea food webs to better understand who’s eating whom. You can learn more about these curious creatures on our website.
*gulp*
So this one is transparent, unlike the other gulper recently filmed that was solid black; is that typical for this species or is this individual still coming out of a transparent larval state? 🙂
