The natural world. Looking pretty for 3.5b years.

The Deep Ocean -- Mother Earth's Curiosity Cabinet

Author: Reilly Capps/Saturday, November 16, 2013/Categories: marine mammals

Today's quiz: What is this?

Vampire squid? Giant squid? Plastic bag? Whale placenta?

This video comes from an oil rig camera in the ocean off Great Britain.

Turns out, it's some kind of jellyfish, possibly Deepstaria enigmatica but probably deepstaria reticulum, an extremely rare deep-sea jellyfish that has only been seen 29 times before. This thing is rarer than a no-hitter, rarer than congressional action. It lives 5,000 feet below the surface, down where James Cameron and mob informants live.

Check this video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute on the jelly: