Nature
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The deeper into the ocean you go, the weirder life seems to get. It may look like a spaceship out of a sci-fi film, but the creature in this video from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is actually a jellyfish.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.On April 24, the alien-like hydromedusa was spotted at a depth of around 3,700 meters (12,100 feet) in an area of the Mariana Trench called the Enigma Seamount in the Pacific Ocean.
In a statement, NOAA said: “You'll see that the long tentacles are even and extended outward and the bell is motionless. This suggests an ambush predation mode. Within the bell, the radial canals in red are connecting points for what looks like the gonads in bright yellow.”
The footage was captured during a dive by experts aboard the Okeanos Explorer, a research vessel that is exploring the deepwater environments of the Mariana Trench until July 10. You can check out live-streams of their dives from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fiji Time (GMT + 12) on certain days.
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