YouTube users were amazed to witness the incredible discovery that a scientific mission made in one of its tours of the seabed of the Pacific Ocean. What their cameras captured went viral almost immediately on more than one social network.
Almost 790 meters below the surface, the Ocean Exploration Trust expedition recorded a well-known, but astonishingly strange jellyfish, transforming in front of its underwater robotic unit.
This is the Deepstaria jellyfish, a creature capable of expanding and changing its shape. Marine researchers witnessed its conversion to a long, amorphous mass within seconds of encountering it.
The jellyfish Deepstaria, a creature capable of expanding and changing its shape (Video capture).
A strange creature in the depths
Although strange, Deepstaria is a common sighting in the deep ocean. Marine scientists know that these and other creatures inhabit the vast, unexplored seas that cover the Earth.
The Ocean Exploration Trust expedition ship.
But this was not a common encounter since a bright red isopod lived inside the Deepstaria. While not prey, the small segmented crustacean apparently consumed parts of the jellyfish while hiding from predators.
The Ocean Exploration Trust, aboard the explorer Nautilus, documents its journeys through the depths of the Marine National Monument of the Remote Islands of the Pacific, a protected area of 1.27 million km² in the central Pacific Ocean.
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GML