SCIENCE

Don't Let This Pile Of Pasta Fool You.. It's Alive!

The "flying spaghetti monster" is actually a complex colony of zooids.
7 hours ago

Carla Herreria Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii

It's not surprising to find alien-like creatures lurking in the deep sea. But what about something that looks like it fell off your dinner plate, then grew a head?
A team from energy giant BP recently stumbled upon a wiggly, pasta-like creature more than 4,000 feet under water off the Angola coast while using a remotely operated deep-sea vehicle for oil well maintenance, according to the journal New Scientist.
They nicknamed it the "flying spaghetti monster," after the satirical Internet diety of the fake Pastafarian religion, and sent the vehicle's video footage to Daniel Jones, a researcher who specializes in deep-sea ecology at the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K.

As part of the SERPENT Project (a collaboration between researchers and energy company teams that operate remotely operated vehicles), Jones and his colleague Phil Pugh identified the creature as a species of bathyphysa conifera, in the order of the siphonophorae.
Siphonophores are colonial animals, according to researchers at Brown University's Dunn Lab, which means they actually are entire colonies of individual zooids.
Each siphonophore begins as a single fertilized egg that reproduces asexually by cloning itself, sometimes thousands of times. Each new zooid has its own role within the colony and functions with the other clones as one living siphonophore.
"In a way these specialized bodies function as organs," Stefan Siebert, a marine biologists at Brown University, told Wired in 2014. “Some move the colony, some feed for the colony, some take care of reproduction."
Siphonophores are extremely fragile and can easily break into pieces. They can grow up to 160 feet, according to National Geographic, making them among the world's longest creatures.
Below, feast your eyes on the delicious terror of the flying spaghetti monster.
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http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55cb9967e4b0923c12bf0ffb?section=science/

I think it's adorable...

On another planet...

I think it should phone home.

the deep blue sea is it's home. it's been there even before we invaded it

Ugh...
We never should of looked. Some things are best unknown.... like at 4,000 feet.

There just was no preparation at 6am to realize, that exists..

fun way to wake up, ey?

Mean Mingle Morning Munchkins.....

Aww...you know i love ya, sassy..

Love you too
I am awake now & hungry .... so please excuse me as I reek havoc on the villagers.


* Damn... some are ugly *

Would you like a serving of...pasta?

I may ever eat seafood or pasta again. .. or buy more goldfish.
I am sticking w/ rice & vegetables & pesticides.... in a wok.

Apparently, Mel Brooks beat you to it.