Since only around 20% of the ocean has been discovered, there are still so many creatures we need to learn about. Some of them are beautiful, some are terrifying, and some are, strangely, both! The giant phantom jelly is in this last group, and I can’t get enough of looking at it. The rare jellyfish was recently caught on camera, and MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) has shared a video of this strange creature with the world.
MBARi notes that this “ghostly giant” is a rare sight. However, MBARI researchers spotted this one in November this year. This Stygiomedusa gigantea was spotted with the ROV Doc Ricketts 990 meters (3,200 feet) deep in Monterey Bay.
“The bell of this deep-sea denizen is more than one meter (3.3 feet) across and trails four ribbon-like oral (or mouth) arms that can grow more than 10 meters (33 feet) in length,” the institute writes. “MBARI’s ROVs have logged thousands of dives, yet we have only seen this spectacular species nine times.” So, you get the idea how rare it is to see this weird jelly.
Still, this creature has been known for quite a while now. The giant phantom jelly was first collected in 1899. “Since then, scientists have only encountered this animal about 100 times,” MBARI writes. I told ya, this video is a real treat.
There are more than 2,000 jellyfish species recognized all over the world, according to World Atlas. However, since the majority of the ocean has been unexplored, some scientists believe that there might be as many as 300,000 different species that we still need to discover! Just imagine what remarkable creatures we’ll hopefully get to see in the future… And in the meantime, enjoy the video of this beautiful and scary giant.
[An extraordinary deep-sea sighting: The giant phantom jelly via Colossal]
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