Post #13753

Bathyphysa knobby: The pasta monster in reality. An extremely alien form of life to us Did you also dream of having several clones as a child? So that he could do your homework for you, help your mother around the house, and you would sit and watch cartoons? What childhood is there, I think adults won’t refuse this! Dreams, dreams! But for the pasta monster, this situation is quite an ordinary reality. Let's meet, this is the cone-shaped bathyphys. The Internet dubbed her the “pasta monster.” It’s not difficult to understand why – just look at the photo. A mess of tentacles and strange growths is crumpled into a piece of biomass. At first glance, it’s difficult to understand: what is it even? Yes, and from the second too. And if you look at it, it generally seems as if this comrade is an alien from another planet. Bathyphysa knobby is a representative of the siphonophore order. These are distant relatives of jellyfish. But unlike them, and from almost all other modern animals in general, Bathyphys prefers the pronoun we/us. Because this is one of the most unusual underwater creatures - a single organism, but created from several separate clones, or zooids. A sort of dorm colony. Clones cannot live separately, outside the colony, but the colony itself is quite capable of creating a bunch more clones to replace others. It sounds complicated, but we'll figure it out now. The gods are not dead. They moved closer to Cthulhu. Like all living things, bathyphysis begins its journey with a single fertilized cell, a zygote. After a week or two, the zygote develops into a larva freely floating in the water column. For some time she drifts with the flow and gains strength, after which biological magic begins. The larva creates an exact copy of itself, and then a second, third, fourth... Yes, some coelenterates, for example, hydras, which are studied at school, also know how to reproduce by creating their own clones. But in the case of bathyphys, everything is different. Hydra clones bud and fall off, beginning their own independent lives. And for the pasta monster, all the zooid clones remain living together. Moreover, immediately after birth, each clone receives its own “profession”. At the very top of the colony there is a zooid pneumatophore. It is a gas-filled bubble in the form of a lump. All. Although the pneumatophore is a “separate organism” in its essence, it still cannot exist independently. The pneumatophore has no other organs; it is simply a highly specialized clone that has the easiest job. He must maintain the balance of the entire colony and ensure that it does not turn upside down. Nutrients are provided by other zooids. Several nectophores are located just below. They look like thick noodles and are responsible for the movement of the entire colony. Nectophores contract according to the principle of an umbrella - they open and close, capturing and throwing out water, which ensures movement. Of course, you can’t acceler