🍝 TIL: The Flying Spaghetti Monster is Real ! 🍝

Don't worry, I am not trying to convert you to being a pastafarian.

This is just another of my strange animal posts :)

So, today it was brought to my attention the existence of a real life creature that is the spitting image of the flying spaghetti monster, although it's more like the... swimming spaghetti monster 😄

Just check it out:

The scientific name of the creature you just witnessed is Bathyphysa conifera. It is a bathypelagic species of siphonophore in the family Rhizophysidae. As aforementioned, it is playfully known these days as the flying spaghetti monster due to the uncanning resemblance to the parody (?) deity of pastafarians.

Public Domain

The species occurs in the deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, in depths ranging from of 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,300 to 13,000 ft).

Although it seems like an individual organism, it actually is a colonial organism. Essentially a cluster of smaller individuals belonging to the same species:

Each specimen is in fact a colonial organism composed of medusoid and polypoid zooids that are morphologically and functionally specialized. Zooids are multicellular units that develop from a single fertilized egg and combine to create functional colonies able to: reproduce, digest, float, and maintain body positioning.

Here's a link to wikipedia if you'd like to learn more about its biology and other boring semantics.

Here's a longer video I found on YouTube for your viewing pleasure :p

I would shit my pants if I ever encountered one 😄

And here's another one, although with a shitty quality. I think it's from a china show or something:

Ok friends, this is it for today. Hope you enjoyed discovering yet another bizarre creature with me.

More wonders of nature soon 😀

Posted Using InLeo Alpha