Thank you WTF Japan Seriously (don’t judge me) for introducing me to my new favorite animal, the Siphonophore
Deep-sea colonial badassery.
There I was, bingeing on animated flocks of flying panties, when I came across this video.
At first I thought it was fake; an elaborate puppet festooned with pink balloons and streamers set to trippy music to delight my stupid American brain.
But no, it’s totally real. Wikipedia says so.
But come on! I have never seen such a cool-looking animal. It’s pink, all jelly-like, has a thousand little curly tentacles, and a tail of christmas tree lights. Does James Cameron know this exists? Obviously not, because it would have starred in Avatar, not the Na’Vi.
Okay, fine, the Na’Vi were freaking awesome, but this thing should have at least made an appearance.
Oh man, the more I read about these things, the cooler they get. Let’s see, the Portuguese man-o-war is a type of siphonophore-I didn’t know that.
Some species can grow to be the longest animals in the world: up to 130 feet long: A stinging jelly longer than a blue whale. Oh my god.
Also, they’re colonial animals, which means they’re made up of thousands of individual animals called zooids, kind of like coral
(Dunn, Casey: http://siphonophores.org/5/25/11) .
Oh hey look I just used APA in real life. I’m sure it’s in the wrong format, but I’m not about to open that book again if I have to.
"Just cite the damn source correctly, woman!"
WAUGH!! (and no.)
Glorious Taco 