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Today's "fish" is the siphonophore! I very recently learnt about this kind marine creature (or creatures?) and they really intrigued me, so I decided to do a deep dive and find info about this deep sea wonder.
What the freak?? These are all siphonophores
Siphonophore facts
- To call a siphonophore a fish, or even a singular creature, isn't really true. They are formed by colonies of thousands and thousands of smaller, single celled organisms that are similar to jellyfish. They can either be medusae zooids and polyp zooids. You may remember polyps from my last entry! When these creatures come together, they form one big "super-organism".
- To add onto the last fact, different zooids have different functions in siphonophores. Some break down food, others specilize in hunting... i'm learning as I type this, and this whole zooid stuff seems very complicated. I don't want to get information wrong, so if you want to learn more, check here, and here.
- Technically, the biggest creature ever recorded was a blue whale. However, there was a siphonophore spotted that reached a length of 50 meters, which is much longer. People don't really recognize it as the world's biggest animal, though! The fact that it's a super organism may contribute to that, though.
- Like many other deep sea creatures, some fascinating siphonophores have the ability to glow. I feel that bioluminescence is a trait I mention alot in these blogs, but it's too cool not to include. However, one thing that makes this fact special is that one kind of siphonophore has been observed to glow red, making it the first bioluminnesecent creature discovered to glow in that colour!
- There are many, many kinds of siphonophores, all of which have unique and odd appearences. One example is Bathyphysa conifera, lovingly dubbed the "Flying Spaghetti Monster". I love pastafarianism!
I was able to find more about these cuckoo creatures, but it was sort of confusing me 😭 Anyway, do you got that siphonophore in u? I don't. They confuse me too much and I don't want to identify with such a puzzling thing!
Comments
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dj
SIPHONOPHORES MY BELOVED
️ would boost a bajillion times
☆pixiecritter♡
Is that a Portuguese man o war?
yeah! portugese man o wars are siphonophores
by dj; ; Report
Cool! Thanks for confirming
by ☆pixiecritter♡; ; Report
🫧Nooya
they look soooo coooollllllllllll
right?? I can barely believe these actually exist on earth. They seem so alien and have such a unqiue beauty, it's a perfect example of the things you'd find in the deep
by picmiz; ; Report
My favorite types of animals are really the translucent ones!! and learning about this one, I'm very happy!!! I'm very interested in learning more fishies, so I'm reading some of your blogs~ ♡( •ॢ◡-ॢ)✧˖° ♡
by 🫧Nooya; ; Report
i hope you enjoy reading them! I love to educate people about my interests, and i feel like many awesome fish are underappreciated. Who knows, maybe you'll find a new fav animal by reading the blogs! x)
by picmiz; ; Report