The giant siphonophore, Apolemia, recorded on an expedition of Australia's Ningaloo Canyons in a ... [+]
What’s the longest animal roaming our planet? A whale? A squid? It may actually be a gelatinous, stinging, string-like animal known as a siphonophore, according to a recent discovery made off the coast of Western Australia.
This giant was discovered during a month-long scientific expedition exploring submarine canyons near Australia’s Ningaloo reef.
Scientists estimate the siphonophore’s outer ring to be about 150 feet long; that’s 50 feet longer than a blue whale! However, its full length is still unknown. “The entire creature is much, much longer. The crew is estimating it to be more than 120 meters in total length—possibly over 390 feet long," said Logan Mock-Bunting, a spokesperson for the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Siphonophores are related to jellyfish. Like jellies, siphonophores are predators. Using their stingers, siphonophores are known to feed on plankton, like copepods and krill. However, some siphonophore species can also handle larger prey, like fish.
Close-up of a siphonophore from Hawaii.
Siphonophores aren’t really one animal, but rather a connected colony of genetically identical pieces - hence their ‘string-like’ shape.
The individual members that make up a siphonophore colony are called ‘zooids’. These zooids cannot survive on their own, but together, they become a stringy, stinging siphonophore.
The zooid building-blocks of a siphonophore colony are not all the same despite sharing the same DNA. Each zooid has a specific role in the colony; there are those that just swim, others that eat, some that sting, to name an important few.
The different, specialized zooids arrange themselves in a specific, repeating order within the colony, like beads on a string. While the pattern of zooids is the same between members of the same siphonophore species, the order differs between species.
Piece by piece, these zooids make up what may be the longest animal on our planet.
