#weirdandwonderful
It’s a jelly. It’s an egg case. It’s a … worm?
The balloon worm (Poeobius meseres) hardly looks like a worm at all. It lives in the midwater—the vast expanse of open water deep below the surface and far above the seafloor. Most marine polychaete worms—the more elaborate relatives of earthworms and leeches—have a clearly segmented body. Their bodies are divided into many nearly identical, repeated parts. Typically, each of those repeated parts is studded with several stiff bristles. Poeobius, however, has a bag-like body filled with fluid that, together with its thick gelatinous coat, provides buoyancy to help it stay up in the water column effortlessly. 
Poeobius is a common and very abundant resident of the midwater of Monterey Bay. It drifts through the water, collecting and eating bits of sinking organic matter in a mucous net. This little worm is actually an important part of cycling nutrients like carbon from the ocean’s surface to its depths. Learn more about these wondrous worms on our website.
This jelly’s crazy colors and far-out appearance clued scientists into a unique find. ✨
Of all the jellies that call the ocean’s midnight zone home, the psychedelic jelly (Crossota millsae) is one of the most stunning. Its wildly colorful appearance—ruby red, bright orange, and electric purple—first tipped off scientists that they had found a previously unknown species.
But a closer look offered scientists another surprise: This species is one of a handful of jellies that bear live young.
The female psychedelic jelly broods her babies on those crimson canals that radiate out inside her bell. Mom carries more than a single baby at once. Her babies can all be different sizes, indicating different stages of development. The developing young get their nutrition from mom. In their shelter beneath her bell, the little jellies grow bigger and bigger, even sprouting tentacles while still attached to their mother. When the juvenile jelly outgrows its shelter, it pulses free and swims off to live on its own. As the juvenile grows, its lavender color fades, developing the tangerine pigmentation typical of adults.
Learn more about this dazzling drifter on our Creature feature page.
Meet one of the most colorful residents of the ocean’s midnight zone. ✨
The remarkable coloration of the psychedelic jelly tipped off scientists that they had found a previously unknown species. It was named in honor of Claudia Mills for her dedication to studying the ocean’s delicate drifters.
While most jellyfish alternate between a swimming stage (the medusa) and an attached stage (the polyp or hydroid), Crossota jellies spend their entire lives in the water column between 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,300 to over 13,000 feet) deep.
Unlike many jellies, we can see obvious differences between males and females. The eggs in the females are large and globular, while the male gonads are shaped like sausages. Crossota jellies reproduce sexually and give “birth” to live young. The baby medusae stay attached under the mother’s bell until they are ready to launch.
Check out last year’s Top 10 video to learn more about these dazzling deep-sea denizens directly from our MBARI researchers: https://mbari.co/toptenvideo.
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#surrealnature #naturephotography #nature #alienlifeform #noedit #photography #lincolnshire #picoftheday #weirdandwonderful (at Hartsholme Country Park)
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