Unidentified floating object: Mysterious blob filmed in the deep - and no-one can work out what it could be
- YouTube video leaves commentators baffled
- Creature could be a jellyfish - but it appears to have organs
- It could be a discarded whale placenta - but it has strange markings
- It could be a fishing net - but it seems to move under its own control
A mysterious ocean 'blob' has been recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera.
The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta.
While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.
Meanwhile it could be a whale placenta, but if that is the case then the hexagonal shapes on the skin are a mystery.
Identified: The mysterious creature has been revealed to be a deep sea jellyfish
Objects within: The creature is a rarely studied jelly fish known as Deepstaria Enigmatica
Unusual: The hexagonal markings on the creature implied the creature was not a jellyfish
Solved: The blob is a Deepstaria Enigmatica - a jelly fish which grows to approximately 60cm in width
If it is a jellyfish, it might be a Stygiomedusa Gigantea. This type of jellyfish - which can grow up to six metres in length - has only been spotted 114 times in 110 years, so details on it are scant.
But again, the appendages get in the way.
Another suggestion is Deepstaria Enigmatica, another rarely-studied jellyfish, which like most of its kind is colourless.
However it has reported to have a brown stomach, with one description saying the passages to the stomach are 'somewhat irregular-edged, forming a reticulate network'.
This might explain the hexagonal markings on the top of the creature - but again, what are the organs doing there?
Those markings lead one commentator on the website Snopes - which tries to debunk or confirm rumours - to suggest this is simply nothing more than a fishing net.
But again, the appendages get in the way.
Another mystery - a man-made one, this time - is exactly where this video was filmed. It was added to YouTube on April 27 this year, and appears to have been filmed two days earlier, but the poster did not leave any other details about the sighting.
Bizarre: The creature had many bizarre appendages which have now been explained as testicles
Wrong: YouTube commentators suggested it may be a whale placenta
Other strange organs kept viewers scratching their heads but the mystery has now been solved
See the video here:
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