A team of researchers searching the depths of the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast has discovered a new gelatinous sea creature.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute discovered a "new species of Erenna siphonophore with elaborate lures" during a 10-day expedition from Monterey Bay to the Channel Islands, according to a July 21 news release. The mission focused on studying the biogeography and physiology of gelatinous plankton.
The team's lead scientist, Steven Haddock, described the creature's unusual appearance in an interview with SF Gate.
“They have these tentacles that hang down with little branches that stick off of them, like little fingers almost, and they wiggle them around with a glowing dot at the end of it,” Haddock
told SF Gate of Erenna siphonophores, which were found 6,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.
What is an Erenna?
An Erenna is a genus of deep-sea siphonophores, according to MBARI.
"Siphonophores are close cousins of jellies. They’re fragile creatures composed of individual, specialized parts connected to each other in a chain," MBARI says on its website. "Some parts pulse and steer the colony, others stun and ingest prey."
The animals thrive in the midwater where there aren’t any sharp surfaces to damage their delicate bodies, MBARI says.
MBARI has previously discovered several siphonophore species, including the angler siphonophore (Erenna sirena), featured in the video above.
Researchers uncover hidden ocean biodiversity
Even though gelatinous creatures play a crucial role in ocean ecosystems, they “have historically been challenging to study,” researchers said.
The institute’s biodiversity and biooptics team "studies the biodiversity of jellies, siphonophores, and ctenophores, observing and collecting these delicate drifters for further study in the lab,” researchers said.
“By examining their physical characters and sequencing their genomes, the team is documenting previously unknown species and revealing hidden diversity within familiar groups,” the institute said.
During the expedition, researchers expanded their understanding of how gelatinous plankton populations differ between the cooler waters off Monterey and the warmer waters farther south.
The team said it used a remotely operated vehicle to observe and collect “gelatinous plankton deep underwater in the ocean’s midnight zone.”
Using a specialized low-light camera developed by MBARI scientists and engineers, the team was able to record “the remarkable bioluminescence displays of these deep-sea jellies in their natural habitat.”
In addition to the new species of Erenna siphonophore, the institute said the team also logged observations of several undescribed ctenophores and “a siphonophore they had previously only seen in the waters of the Gulf of California, advancing efforts to catalog life in the deep ocean.”
Each morning, researchers used a small boat to collect comb jellies and other jellies near the ocean’s surface. At night, they used nets to sample animals that rise to the surface to feed.
New creature resembles a tadpole
When the team first encountered the new species, Haddock said they initially thought it was an already documented type of Erenna siphonophore, SF Gate reported. But a closer look at the tentacles revealed features that made the creature resemble “a tadpole,” Haddock said.
“It had like a big round head and two dots where the eyes would be, and then like this long, wiggly tail,” he told SF Gate.
Its distinct appearance likely meant the animal had “adapted to attract a different kind of fish” than other documented versions of the species, Haddock explained to SF Gate.
“Expeditions like this one advance efforts towards a complete census of marine life and are critical to understanding ocean ecosystems, how they are linked, and how they might be changing,” researchers said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: New gelatinous sea creature discovered off Southern California coast
