The rarely seen, bizarre creature which resembles a ball of pasta was originally filmed by industry giant BP, which they then forwarded onto ecology experts for further analysis.
The strange looking creature was eventually identified by Daniel Jones and Phil Pugh from the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. They identified it as a species of bathyphysa conifera, and is not just the one animal, but a large cluster of zooids.
“To my knowledge this creature has only been observed a handful of times,” said Jones. “The creature appears spaghetti-like because the stem is contracted up so that all the feeding zooids are jam-packed together. In a way these specialized bodies function as organs.”
While they are known to be fragile, siphonophores can grow to an incredible 160ft in length. Check out the video below:
