I ’m trusted you do n’t need us to tell you that the deep ocean is filled with some in truth weird stuff , from the terrifyingdragon fishto the adorableDumbo octopus . But every so often , a picture surfaces of yet another rarity from the sea , this clip courtesy ofAbc Scuba Diving .
In the waters off Port Douglas , Australia , underwater diver came across a giant translucent tube , with a bizarre pinkish shininess to its surface . appear like something straight out of the 1989 classicThe Abyss , the diver were initially uncertain what the 3 - meter - long ( 10 - understructure - foresightful ) creature might be .
The bizarre sea creature is actually what is known as agiant pyrosome , and is n’t just one organism , but really many . The farseeing transparent tube is made up of chiliad of individual clones that come together to spring the empty complex body part . Each one – only a few milimeters in size – is its own entity , drawing in water from the outside , filtering out food particle like algae , and then expelling the weewee into the inside of the giant cylinder of the dependency .
They are known as pyrosomes from the Greek for flak ( “ pryro ” ) and body ( “ bod ” ) , as not only do the little fauna work these massive colonies , but they are also bioluminescent . The light source that they get is noted for being unusually bright and long durable . They ofttimes pulse the visible light along the cylinder , as when one get going emitting , its neighbor often follow suit . Not only that , but it has also been noted that when one colony starts to bioluminesce , other nearby colony will connect in the light show .
The brute can reproduce clonally , meaning that any damage done to the tube-shaped structure can be easily repaired and filled in . Each someone clone is also hermaphroditic , in that they make both the egg and spermatozoon . It is thought that if two colonies happen to happen into each other in the sea , they will have sexual reproduction , in addition to the asexual replication they do when they clone themselves and bud off .
And as if all of that was not weird enough , the sea tube is really amazingly nearly related to to us . Pyrosomes are part of the tunicate radical of animals , meaning that the individual critter each control a notochord , or primitive back , and thus are sort out as chordates , just like you and I.
