'Unusual' Atolla Jellyfish With Up To 39 Tentacles Discovered By Scientists Off US Coast

Marine life is probably the vastest collection of living beings on the planet, and now, scientists have come across an "unusual" new species of deep-sea jellyfish living in the waters off the California coast. According to reports, the rare creature - a type of Atolla jellyfish - was discovered by scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

The jellyfish lives in the so-called midnight zone of the ocean, which is between one and four kilometres deep.

It is a mysterious region where light only comes from animals that produce it themselves and the pressure reaches 5,580 pounds a square inch. Several years ago, scientists stumbled upon something strange while looking at videos and samples from remotely-operated vehicles.

MBARI

Atolla is a red-coloured jelly with one trailing tentacle, and is a common inhabitant of the midnight zone of Monterey Bay; there were some other jellyfish that donned a different appearance. Instead of one tentacle, this jelly had none.

¡°We realized that we had found an unusual jelly around 2014 and went back through our records to find a few additional observations,¡± says George Matsumoto, MBARI senior education and research specialist.

¡°We also kept an eye out for additional sightings so that we could obtain specimens to examine and deposit at the California Academy of Sciences.¡±

MBARI

Numerous specimens of three different Atolla-like jellies that lacked the tentacle were collected, and now, scientists have created enough details to formally identify one of them - they named it 'Atolla reynoldsi' - in a research paper published last m

The newly described jelly is bigger compared to other Atollas ¨C the largest specimen MBARI researchers collected was 13 centimetres in diameter, and can have anywhere from 26 to 39 tentacles.

The new jelly is not as common as other types of Atolla ¨C researchers have only observed 10 specimens between April 2006 and June 2021.

Presently, the species is only known from Monterey Bay and lives at depths of 1,013 to 3,189 meters. According to Matsumoto and his coauthors, two more previously unknown species of Atolla also live in the depths of Monterey Bay, California ¨C alongside the ten types of Atolla that are already known around the world. Researchers are hoping to use DNA to describe these new additions.

¡°We have seen even fewer of these than our recent new species so we need to wait to find some more samples before we can say that they are also new species,¡± he says.

¡°We hope that by publishing images and videos that our colleagues around the world will keep their eyes open for these undescribed types.¡±

MBARI

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h/t: LiveScience