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If I said these creatures were our distant cousins, would you believe me? Well, they are!
About 3,000 tunicate species are found in salt water habitats throughout the world. Although tunicates are invertebrates (animals without backbones) found in the subphylum Tunicata (sometimes called Urochordata), they are part of the Phylum Chordata, which also includes animals with backbones, like us.
https://ocean.si.edu/tunicates-not-so-spineless-invertebrates
Photo Credit: Ian Davidson, Smithsonian
Some of the most otherworldly animals—like those straight from a science fiction story—can be seen in the open ocean at night. By drifting in the blackwater in a scuba suit just under the surface, some 60 to 70 feet below, divers can film some of these bizarre animals. In this video, see a pyrosome, a free-floating colonial tunicate, comb jellies (aka ctenophores) with their sticky tentacles, jellyfish, and siphonophores. Many of these animals are mysterious, with very little known about their biology as they drift through the dark water.
sarahmackattack
bears-official
@squidscientistas any idea who this boy is or Whunt he may be doing? Mike Vecchione’s got nothin, other than “the most bizarre squid I’ve ever seen…”
(Okeanos is diving on an unexplored seamount in the Gulf of Mexico until ~4pm CDT, follow along here)
Man if Mike doesn’t know, nobody knows! Seriously, I saw this thing and my jaw dropped. So cool, so bizarre!!! It’s been a good day for cephalopods!
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