"BIG RED" new discovery

dang....that a bummer....both for you and for the hopes that it would be a bit more irrational.... i think the irrational stuff is the most interesting about a person..... :|

plus i feel quasi-finkish for dragging up....
 
WhiteKiboko said:
"In photographs, it looks like a big red spaceship cruising the ocean depths. "

coming to abduct a certain TONMO member..... :twisted:

OMG, is that my punishment for cross-posting to multiple forums? I'd better behave from now on! :P

Jared: How much of a bribe would it take for me to stow away on the ship?

Clem: Don't feel bad about the jellyfish thing. While I am not afraid of insects, spiders, or snakes (except venomous ones), I have a completely irrational aversion to centipedes. I don't even mind millipedes, but there's something about centipedes that grosses me out and scares me simultaneously. Yes, I know they're useful in getting rid of roaches and other small vermin, but I'll rely on spiders, praying mantises, and ladybugs to take care of that, thank you very much!

I've never been bitten by a centipede, or had one fall from the ceiling into my mouth :yuck: , it's just that IMHO they don't seem to have much redeeming social value. Spiders and snakes have traditionally been powerful spiritual totems in cultures all around the world, millipedes look like cute li'l choo-choo trains, and mantises and ladybugs are beautiful to behold. But centipedes are just.... eeeuw!

(Needless to say, I was completely freaked out by the "Amidala's bedchamber" scene in SW: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, and back when the Big Calamari and I used to play video arcade games, the only one at which I excelled was -- what else? -- "Centipede".)

Tani
(who once played with Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches at the Liberty Science Center)
 
TaningiaDanae said:
I've never been bitten by a centipede, or had one fall from the ceiling into my mouth :yuck: , it's just that IMHO they don't seem to have much redeeming social value.

When I was 15, one of those little ******* dropped out of a post-shower towel I'd wrapped around my waist. The towel was on for several minutes before the little ******* fell out and landed on my foot, occasioning a moment of weightlessness on my part, followed by a moment of lifelessness on the centipede's part.

Jellies, centipedes and pelagic nudibranchs need not justify their existence. I'd still like to hear an explanation for leeches, however.

:|

Clem
 
TaningiaDanae said:
Jared: How much of a bribe would it take for me to stow away on the ship?

I'm just a tiny step above the rank of stowaway myself, so I'm probably not the right person to bribe. However, you can keep track of where the ship is and what it's doing here. I'm still waiting to hear back from the boss. At this point, I don't even know where it is we're supposed to be going. My understanding though is that the ROV tiburon gets used just about every time they go anywhere so hopefully I'll be able to peek over someone's shoulder and spaz out if any cephalopods show up on screen.
 
Clem said:
When I was 15, one of those little ******* dropped out of a post-shower towel I'd wrapped around my waist. The towel was on for several minutes before the little ******* fell out and landed on my foot, occasioning a moment of weightlessness on my part, followed by a moment of lifelessness on the centipede's part.

Jellies, centipedes and pelagic nudibranchs need not justify their existence. I'd still like to hear an explanation for leeches, however.

:|

Clem

Could've been worse -- can you imagine if it had stayed in the towel? (Uh, better not go there.... :shock: )

I don't swim, so I've never had a bad experience with jellyfish. In fact, I find them extremely relaxing to watch, whether in tanks at the Aquarium or on nature shows (there was one about an inland lagoon somewhere that is completely occupied by them, and it's like 60 minutes of watching a lava lamp with New Age music).

I respectfully disagree with your evaluation of nudibranchs -- I think they are beautiful in their variety, especially the aptly-named Spanish Dancer which looks like a flamenco dancer's skirt billowing in the waves:

Spanish Dancer nudibranch, Hexabranchus sanguineus

(To get the full effect of their graceful "dance", you have to see them in action on a nature program. Magnificent!)

Believe it or not, the antiquated use of leeches in medical treatments has been vindicated by recent research -- though not in the same manner. Leeches are now being used in hospitals to safely and painlessly drain blood-engorged wounds and to encourage circulatory function in reattached extremities. I've heard about this from many sources -- here is one of many online articles regarding this practice:

http://www.hsc.missouri.edu/~news/LEECHES.shtml

Now, if you're talking mosquitos -- that is one species whose raison d'etre is a complete mystery to me. (I suppose if I were a frog I'd feel differently.... )

Ed O'Neill
The Nudie-branch Bar
 
Of some interest, a new genus of deep water jelly has been discovered by Monterey Bay researchers. It is unusual as the animal has a bumpy appearance, has four arms but lacks tentacles.

Sorry Clem.

New 'bumpy' jelly found in deep sea

bumpy_jelly.jpg
 
Phil said:
Of some interest, a new genus of deep water jelly has been discovered by Monterey Bay researchers. It is unusual as the animal has a bumpy appearance, has four arms but lacks tentacles.

Phil,

Bumpy?

I don't think I can handle the notion of rugose jellies.

:goofysca:

Clem
 
http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2004/stellamedusa.html

It seems that squid pieces have been used to test the effectiveness of the stinging cells by MB researchers. Nice photo in the link above.

Copy of full text here, enlarged from the microprint on the MB website:

The MBARI researchers named the jelly Stellamedusa ventana. Its genus, Stellamedusa, refers to the jelly's translucent blue-white color and trailing arms, which reminded the scientists of a slow-moving meteor or shooting star. It's species name, ventana, refers to MBARI's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana, a deep-diving submarine robot that first recorded the jelly on video in 1990. Before they created an official name for this animal, researchers gave this jelly the nickname "bumpy" because it's bell and oral arms are covered with small bumps, which are actually clusters of stinging cells that the jelly uses to capture prey.
Kevin Raskoff, primary author of the paper, says of the new jelly "Although it's highly unusual for a jelly not to have tentacles, several deep-sea species have evolved this way. They have also evolved unusual feeding strategies, which rely on other parts of their body, such as the bell and oral arms, to capture prey." Formerly a postdoctoral researcher at MBARI, Raskoff now teaches at California State University, Monterey Bay.
MBARI researchers have seen S. ventana only seven times during thirteen years of diving. Five of these observations were in Monterey Bay. The other two occurred during an MBARI expedition to the Gulf of California in spring 2003. According to George Matsumoto, co-author of the paper, "This animal still represents a conundrum. At first we thought it might be just a very rare local species, here in Monterey Bay. Then we saw it twice in the Gulf of California, three thousand miles away. We still have no idea of its true range."
The researchers waited years to publish their discovery of this jelly because they wanted to be able to present information about its habits and distribution, as well as its appearance. As Matsumoto put it, "you need enough observations to understand the natural variations in the animal's size and shape. We just didn't have enough information to make any general statements about the animal."
Here is some of what they do know: S. ventana has been observed at depths between 150 and 550 meters (about 500 to 1800 feet), just below the level that sunlight can penetrate, but above a layer of very low oxygen levels. This region is known as the mesopelagic realm, and is the home of entire communities of gelatinous animals. In fact, based on field and lab observations, the researchers believe that this jelly may feed primarily on other jellies.
To study the jelly's eating habits, the researchers placed a captured jelly in a tank with small shrimp and pieces of squid. The shrimp and squid collided with batteries of stinging cells on the jelly's bell and stuck there. The prey then moved slowly down to the edge if the bell. At that point, the jelly transferred the prey to one of its oral arms, where it slowly moved up the arm and into the mouth.
Unlike other jellies who capture food with their bells, S. ventana seemed to prefer prey larger than about 2 cm (3/4 inch). In fact, one individual captured in the Gulf of California had in its gut a ctenophore about 5 cm (2 inches) across. Raskoff speculates that the bumps on the jelly's bell and arms may aid in capturing large pray. "These bumps contain massive batteries of stinging cells, which are good for holding on to prey as well as immobilizing it."
Matsumoto is somewhat surprised that S. ventana has never been described previously or hauled up in nets. "The coast of California is one of the more well-studied parts of the world's oceans, with two major oceanographic institutions dating from the late 1800s. Yet we are still discovering new species there. Who knows what else we might find?" Raskoff adds, "It's heartwarming to know that there's still a lot of mystery in the deep ocean. There are still a lot of big things moving around out there that we don't know about."
Research article citation:
K. A. Raskoff and G. I. Matsumoto, Stellamedusa ventana, a new mesopelagic scyphomedusae from the eastern Pacific representing a new subfamily, the Stellamedusinae. 2004. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 84, 4274/1-6.

I wonder if there is any recorded cases of ocean going jellyfish feeding on live squid? ...shudder.....
 
Squid-eating jellies

What's the biggest known jellyfish? :?: Imagine poor M. hamiltoni or A. dux being consumed by a monster deep sea 30m jellyfish :wink:
 

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