Unabhängig von der Qualle, die so erst ein Mal vorher gesehen wurde, finde ich ja immer noch wunderschön, welche Begeisterung derartige Entdeckungen bei den Endeckenden auslöst. Vielleicht liebt niemand seinen Job so sehr wie Meeresbiologinnen und Meeresbiologen. Und ja, die Qualle ist natürlich auch ein Hübschie.
No, that’s not a face-hugger from the Alien films you see on your screen, but it sure is bizarre! Our team was stumped when we encountered this mysterious gelatinous creature while diving on a previously unexplored guyot north-northwest of Kingman Reef. One of our experts initially guessed it could be a helmet jellyfish (with missing tentacles), but thanks to our expert, global Scientist Ashore network – connected to the ship via telepresence technologies – we have solved the mystery!
Midwater expert Dr. Dhugal Lindsay helped us to identify this jellyfish as a member of the order Narcomedusae, and an undescribed species within the genus Bathykorus. This is only the second encounter with this animal, first spotted by NOAA Ocean Exploration’s ship Okeanos Explorer in 2015. Using the rays on top of the bell, we believe this animal likely eats other gelatinous animals like jellies and/or swimming sea cucumbers. Different from all other species in the genus, the animal’s brown color indicates to experts that this is a predator of bioluminescent prey. You never know what we’ll find when exploring the deep ocean in the Pacific Remote Islands!
