Tiny 'Jellyfish' Team Up for Multi-Jetpack Swimming

By Mindy Weisberger, Live Science Contributor | September 17, 2015 07:39am ET

A jellyfishlike creature that swims using an array of "jetpacks" could transform the way engineers design underwater exploration vehicles, suggests a recent study.

Meet Nanomia bijuga, a relative of jellies, anemones and corals. This siphonophore navigates the ocean in colonies measuring about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long. Most of that length is made up of its tentacles, which trail behind a translucent structure resembling chains of tiny jellyfish attached to a central column. From tip to tentacles, each section within a colony is a specialized group of genetically identical individuals that perform different jobs.

The jelly chains, or clusters of spheres called nectophores, are the designated drivers. And researchers just discovered that they divide the labor based on age, with the young'uns in the front steering, while the elders in the back thrust the gelatinous bus forward. Working together, they form a living propulsion unit that is rare in animals. 

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Scientists have found, identified the ‘flying spaghetti monster’

AUGUST 17, 2015

by Chuck Bednar

Not only is the flying spaghetti monster the deity of its own satirical church, but it appears to be a real live creature, as workers at petroleum giant BP recently videotaped one while collecting video footage in the waters off the coast of Angola.

According to Discovery News and Live Science reports, the creatures was filmed by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) that was collecting footage at depths of nearly 4,000 feet (or 1,220 meters). The creature resembled “a bowl of noodles turned upside down underwater,” thus leading the oil and gas workers to name it in honor of the flying spaghetti monster.

The creature was later identified as a siphonophore, a group of animals that includes corals and jellyfish, by researchers at the at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre. Named B. conifer, it is a colonial animal made up of several different multicellular organisms called zooids.

As the websites explain, zooids attach to other zooids to form more complex organisms. Once a zooid is developed from a fertilized egg, others bud from it until an entire animal is formed. Each of these creatures has a job to do, and in the case of B. conifer, not all of the creatures catch and eat food, and only some reproduce, but combined they ensure mutual survival.

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This Strange Purple Creature Is Actually A Living Colony (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post | By Clarke Reilly

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Posted: 07/09/2014 8:57 am EDT Updated: 07/09/2014 8:59 am EDTPrint Article

Scientists with cameras are a fun bunch, especially when they stumble upon something crazy-looking and mysterious they had no idea they'd see.

In the above video, a purple blob looks like a piece of trash drifting in the current. But when it starts to move, these scientists get pretty excited.

That's because what they're seeing is a rare creature called a siphonophore. Actually, it's not just one creature, but a whole colony of animals, called zooids. Siphonophores are composed of dozens of them, and each have specialized functions. For example,some zooids help with swimming while others feed, according to Siphonophores.org.

Researchers on the Ocean Exploration Trust's EV Nautilus captured this unusual one as it crossed its cameras during an expedition last month in the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists can be heard ooo-ing and aah-ing over their discovery, estimating its size to be about 15 to 20 Wiffle balls, give or take. (Using a Wiffle ball as a unit of measurement underwater provides size prospective when analyzing images.)

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'Don't panic' advice after jellyfish seen off Weymouth

9:20am Saturday 15th August 2009

By Miriam Phillips »

SWIMMERS were today warned not to panic after two sightings of poisonous jellyfish off the coast near Weymouth.

The Portuguese Man o’ War were spotted off the coast in Weymouth and Worbarrow Bay, near Lulworth.

The creatures were sighted after more than 100 were washed up last month earlier this month at West Bay, causing the main beach to close.

Charter boat skipper Josh Simmonds, of the boat Revolution, spotted one of the jellyfish three miles out at sea near the eastern end of the Portland breakwater.

He said that the tentacles were about six feet long.

He said: “I haven’t seen a Portuguese Man o’ War this big for years but at the moment it’s really clear and there also seems to be lots of compass jellyfish around.

“The weather has been calm this year and we haven’t had much wind.

“We were fishing for mackerel and I was really surprised to see this and so were the customers from Poole on a day trip.

“They thought it was great.

“I just worry that this might end up washed up on the beach and stink some poor kid.”

The Portuguese Man o' War is one of the world’s deadliest jellyfish and carries a poisonous sting in its tentacles although it is rarely lethal. It can be fatal if it causes an allergic reaction in its victim.

Another sighting of a 4ft Portuguese Man o’ War jellyfish was reported to the Dorset Wildlife Trust on Wednesday of last week after a sighting in Worbarrow Bay.

Weymouth RNLI Lifeguard supervisor Ed Stephens said there have been no sightings in the Weymouth or Portland reported to them this summer and that Weymouth beach goers and swimmers should not worry.

“It’s nothing to worry about.

“Weymouth beach is so sheltered that the likelihood of one washing up is highly remote,” he said.

“The reason they washed up in West Bay is that the southerly winds brought them up from the Bay of Biscay.

“There have been no jellyfish stings from Man O’ War in Weymouth and the one child that was stung in West Bay was fine afterwards.”

Dorset Wildlife Trust’s reserve manager Julie Hatcher said: “Normally it’s rare to get these kind of jellyfish here but this is now the second year that there have been sightings on the Dorset coast.

“As far as I know they are not coming in huge numbers and in Dorset they seem to be few and far between.

“They are something to look out for because they can give a nasty sting but nothing to panic about.”

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/4547668._Don_t_panic__advice_after_jellyfish_seen_off_Weymouth/