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Deep-sea jellyfish surprises scientists with red-tipped lure
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/120...
By Glennda Chui
Jul. 08, 2005
Deep in the waters off Monterey Bay and Baja California, scientists have found strange new jelly creatures that appear to troll for fish by dangling
red fluorescent lures at the ends of invisible strings.
It was a surprise on several counts.
While many deep-sea animals glow, they generally do it in shades of blue or blue-green, said Steven Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute, lead author of a report today in the journal Science.
Scientists didn't think most ocean animals could see red light. Now they may have to revise that view.
What's more, this creature, a new species in a group called Erenna, jerks and twitches its ant-size red lure on the end of a translucent stalk,
mimicking the motions of even tinier animals that fish like to eat.
It apparently works: Two of the three specimens researchers found had pieces of fish inside them, although there aren't many fish at the depths where
they live -- 5,200 to 7,500 feet below the surface.
Not everyone is convinced. Edith Widder, a marine biologist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida, said it's hard to understand
how this unusual red lure could have evolved to attract fish, when every other ocean creature uses blue.
``These are the kinds of things that get us all excited as deep-sea biologists,'' she said. ``There's a wonderful story there, and we're all grasping
at what it might be.''
The only other deep-sea animal known to use red light is the scaleless dragonfish. It shines the light to illuminate its prey, as if peering through a
sniper scope.
``There are still so many things we don't know about the deep sea,'' said Haddock, a marine biologist who made the discovery with colleagues from Yale
University and the National Oceanographic Center in Britain.
The new species is a siphonophore, a relative of corals and jellyfish. The best-known siphonophore is the Portuguese man-of-war. Although they're
major ocean predators, they tend to fall apart when brought to the surface; scientists didn't know much about the deep-sea species until they started
collecting and videotaping them from submersibles.
Some siphonophores grow up to 120 feet long. This one is just 18 inches long, but can pack quite a wallop, Haddock said.
Each Erenna has about 15 stomachs in its tube-like body. Each stomach has a tentacle, and each tentacle branches into a number of translucent stalks.
At the bottom of each stalk is a band of about 3,000 stinging cells that can all fire at once, ``like a whole barrage of harpoons being fired into
you,'' Haddock said.
The red lure, at the end of the stalk, is built like a Tootsie roll pop: At the center is a tiny organ that produces blue light through a chemical
process, called bioluminescence, that's quite common in the ocean. Around it, like the hard candy coating of the pop, is fluorescent material that
absorbs the blue light from the center and converts it to a red glow.
The stingers are powerful, Haddock said. When one member of the team, Casey Dunn of Yale, handled an Erenna with rubber gloves, ``the stingers went
right through the gloves,'' he said, producing a burning sensation like you'd get from a stinging nettle.
Even so, he said, ``The jellies themselves, I think they're quite beautiful.''
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jrbaja
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We watched a special the other night
and the new finds regarding luminescense in underwater critters was incredible. Because of new technology in submersibles and photography, we will
soon be seeing what is really out in the 90% of the ocean that even the scientists don't know about.
As far as everything being blue, hogwash. Although I thought it was pretty incredible seeing catfish that glowed blue in the Brunei River, I thought
it more incredible seeing a critter shaped like an extended spring, with pulsing, multi colored lights working their way down this spring thing. And
there was a bunch more too!
This will be interesting to be sure!!
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Taco de Baja
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Mood: Dreamin' of Baja
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The USO's have landed!
Actually they have been here awhile...Unidentified Swimming Objects  .
Should be as interesting seeing what's swimming in the deep seas as it is seeing what's on Mars, orwhat was on Mars
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