How long is a sea creature that’s like a piece of string? Very long, it turns out
The discovery of what could be the longest animal ever recorded was announced in April. The 4Tm-long siphonophore was found in a deep-sea canyon off the west coast of Australia by researchers from the Western Australian Museum, and a submersible robot called ROV SuBastian.
A siphonophore is a colonial organism made up of lots of individual animals called ‘zooids’ that reproduce asexually. cach zooid performs a particular function for the siphonophore – like the cells in our bodies – so that the colony acts together as one long chain.
The researchers also found what might be 30 other new species during their expedition, which took them to depths of 4.Skm.