Capable of growing to the length of a sperm
whale, these bizarre organisms glow when touched.
Tue, Apr 07, 2015 at 11:52 PM
Can you identify this giant alien-like sea creature? (Photo: EaglehawkDive/YouTube)
Though it may look like a screen grab
from a B-grade creature flick, that's a real living thing in the photo
above. These hollow, worm-like entities can grow to a mammoth size. In
fact, they have been recorded at lengths comparable to a sperm whale.
Even more eerie, they are bioluminescent and will glow when touched — that is, if you're brave enough to swim up to one.
What in the world is it? It's called a pyrosome, and although these
marine monsters are rarely encountered, scientists believe our oceans
may be teeming with them, according to New Scientist. The picture here was captured by divers at the Eaglehawk Dive Centre in Tasmania, Australia. You can view the video footage from the encounter here:
Pyrosomes might look like giant sea worms, but they're actually
hollow on the inside. And while they appear to be a single organism,
they are colonies of individual creatures that have banded together for a
common purpose. Exactly how these massive colonies coordinate their
behavior is still being studied, but researchers suspect they
communicate through light signaling.
The bioluminescent light shows that pyrosomes are capable of
displaying can be awe-inspiring, if not otherworldly. Imagine witnessing
one of these light up in the ocean below while sailing at night, or
while night diving. Their green-blue or red glow (color depends on the
species) radiates more intensely when disturbed, so touching them can
trigger the spectacle.
Another interesting fact about pyrosomes is that they're
jet-propelled. Their hollow inner channel sucks in water from one end
and expels it out the other. It's not a powerful flow, but it's enough
to gradually push them along through the ocean's currents. The sucking
in and expelling of water is also how the colony captures food and
disposes of waste.
Pyrosomes may also be immortal, in a sense. They reproduce by
cloning, so the colony can regenerate injured parts. Though individuals
in the colony die, the colony itself could theoretically live forever.
And although they are mostly harmless, if you ever encounter a
pyrosome, it's not advised that you attempt to swim inside its hollow
tube. According to one diver's account, a 6.5 foot specimen was once
encountered with a dead penguin trapped inside.
"The penguin had obviously swum in the open end of the tube then
couldn’t turn – it was jammed in the apex of the pyrosome and its beak
was just poking through the colony matrix," recalled K Gowlett-Holmes to Deep Sea News. "Even fairy penguins are quite strong – the fact it could not break free shows just how tough some pyrosomes are."
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