Ghostly Deepstaria Jellyfish

The crew of the RV Nautilus used the Hercules ROV to spy on a Deepstaria jellyfish. In reaction to the Hercules drawing near, the jelly went into defensive mode and put on a show for the watching scientists. This jelly doesn't have normal tentacles, but rather a ghostly blanket of flesh.

Deepstaria is as mysterious as it is rare, a shapeshifter whose body exists somewhere on a spectrum between enormous trash bag and ghostly lampshade. Last week, these researchers used a remotely operated vehicle to capture a video of the freaky jelly.

The jellyfish in the video is roughly the size of a trash can. This deep-sea jelly lacks tentacles, and appears in the shape of a thin, membrane-like bell. Up close, you can see a geometric mesh pattern made up of canals that provide structural support and deliver nutrients to the body. In 2015, Wired referred to it as a “floating blanket.”

The jelly also has a living isopod inside, but scientists aren't sure if it's a parasite or a symbiote, since we really don't know all that much about Deepstaria. (via Boing Boing)