Not a Sea Monster But Still Interesting...

[M.D. Holloway]

What in the world is this whale-sized tubular sea monster? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Basic creature(s) but its not a stretch to think that this is possible elsewhere in the universe...

[sc_rufctr]

Freaky

[jyl]

Wow. I have never heard of this creature before. Not many large to very large animals that are totally unknown to just about everyone.

[onewhippedpuppy]

It's amazing how little we know about our own oceans. I suspect there are lots of creatures that we haven't ever encountered, especially in extreme depths.

[tevake]

How fascinating , new to me too.

The bio-luminescence part really interests me.
Have seen a number of forms of this phenomenon.
There is a bay in Puerto Rico thats well known for the intensity of the glowing wakes behind boats there at night. Its brilliant and trails out behind the boat for great distance.

Sailing at night in the pacific I've come across fields of sparkling plankton. That look like cities seen from the air at night, When seen in the distance. They really light up when agitated by the boat as it passes thru them. The bow waves of the three hull of our trimaran made glowing sheets that erupted brightly when they crash together between the hulls.

And there is what I called depth charges, flashes of light seen down deep under the boat . Brief in duration, but fairly large. made me wonder if it was a response to the boats passage overhead, or happening all of the time.

It's a phenomenal world out in nature. At sea it seems like we are only scratching the surface.

Cheers Richard

[KNS]

I sometimes think that if life exists on other planets somewhere, this is the sort of thing that would be found (probably not going to look like Roswell creatures...).

[M.D. Holloway]

Agree. The colony concept seems to make the most sense. Developing a system like a mammal is ridiculously complicated but something along these lines seems far more efficient. Granted it doesn't have the complexity of systems yet it isn't a stretch to see how single cell organisms could group together and develop into something more than itself and have a better chance at survival at a cheaper energy expense. I suppose the next step would be further specialization to accommodate the environment in order to give it an even better chance.

What is really cool is that the cells clone themselves. If they have a slight mutation tendency then evolution of the creature wouldn't take that long at all. I suppose a stretch would be to consider that if cells life was short and a cloned cell could develop to accommodate the environ you could at some point have a creature that could change very quickly. Not saying they would be shapeshifters but ...

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

It's amazing how little we know about our own oceans. I suspect there are lots of creatures that we haven't ever encountered, especially in extreme depths.

This^^^ I'm all for exploring space... but we know so little about our ocean because it is so vast. It also is the key to life on this planet... you think it would behoove us explore our own planet.

[M.D. Holloway]

Elephant-Size Underwater Blob Mystifies Divers

on a similar note...

[Matt Smith]

I've encountered one of these giant salp colonies in person at the Poor Knights Islands (google them, awesome spot) in North East NZ.
Truly cool. It was light pink and about 3/4 the length of the one in that first pic. There was enough space to fit inside, but you'd have to take off your gear first!

[Matt Smith]

If anyone is interested in colonies existing as a solitary organism, aka Mars style, check out some of the slime mould species.
The good ones are spectacular: single cell organisms (one cell, like it says) aggregating and then specialising their roles in that colony to form a singular, motiile, sensory and surprisingly slug-like 'animal'. Makes you think about your own mortal mass.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

This^^^ I'm all for exploring space... but we know so little about our ocean because it is so vast. It also is the key to life on this planet... you think it would behoove us explore our own planet.

It's nearly as difficult to explore the depths of our own planet.