Researchers at the Schmidt Ocean Institute have found a jellyfish in the sea off Australia that may have the largest jellyfish cluster ever. The string is spiral-shaped, the outer circle of which has a diameter of 47 meters.
The jellyfish has been observed off western Australia, near the Ningaloo coast. There, biologists from the Schmidt Ocean Institute were on an expedition when they spotted the unusually large animal.
The animal is a siphonophora, or tube jellyfish. The specific species is the Apolemia. The phenomenon is actually not one animal, but a kind of living colony of a jellyfish and several smaller polyps.
In this particular specimen, millions of organisms would have to work together to survive, for example by finding food and sharing nutrients through the long string.
The institute’s biologists were on board to tell their stories ScienceAlert that everyone was “blown away” by the images. “People from all over the ship rushed to the wheelhouse to see the footage.”
