Footage of a mysterious creature has been captured by underwater researchers below the waves off the west coast of Australia.
Known as a siphonophore Apolemia, the string-like creature is huge, measuring well over 150 feet. But not all is as it seems.
The siphonophore is actually made up of thousands of small clones called siphonophores that resemble jellyfish.
This particular specimen was picked up by a research vessel from the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SCI) that was patrolling a deep-sea environment known as the Ningaloo Canyons. The team behind the discovery say it is the largest specimen ever discovered.
The team aboard the vessel estimated the siphonophore’s outer ring measured 49 feet in diameter, which they reckon means the the whole organism is about 154 feet long. To put that in context, if it was unrolled it would be as tall as an 11-storey building.
‘This animal is a kind of jelly, called a siphonophore. It’s made of millions of interconnected clones, like if the Borg and the Clone Wars had a baby together,’ wrote Rebecca Helm, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville, on Twitter.
‘There are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, and each clone is specialized to a particular task,’ she wrote.
‘I’ve gone on numerous expeditions and have never, EVER, seen anything like this. Let me tell you what this is and why it is blowing my mind,’ she wrote.
‘Most of the siphonophore colonies I’ve seen are maybe 20 centimeters long, maybe a meter. But THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it’s hunting.’
The ship that made the find is equipped with two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV), dry and wet laboratories, an aerial observation platform and a multibeam sonar system that can map the seafloor.
Amazingly, the region of sea it’s currently touring is largely unexplored.
‘The Ningaloo region is celebrated for its incredible diversity of evolutionary significant fauna. In contrast, the adjacent deep sea environment is almost completely unexplored,’ said Dr Nerida Wilson who led the researchers.
‘This expedition will be a wonderful opportunity to shed some light on some of this region’s unseen biodiversity.’
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