pyrosomes

[eub]

A beautiful thing, Pyrosoma atlanticum.
(if that doesn't work for you, it's the Rick Anderson photo on thsi page.)

"Bob Gladden's monster Pyrosoma" appears halfway through this movie.

Also,

What appears to be one long creature is a colony of joined-together individuals, like reef corals except squishy. Each individual in a pyrosome colony has a mouth facing outward.
[...]
The opening of the largest pyrosome is so big a person can swim inside.
[...]
"I wrote my name with my finger on the surface of the giant Pyrosoma as it lay on the deck in a tub at night, and the name came out in a few seconds in letters of fire."
[...]
It has been suggested that the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin torpedo attack on an American ship, which drove the U.S. deep into the Vietnam War, were pyrosome flashes, because the creatures are common in that area.

Comments

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

Ah! They're amazing! Where do you find this stuff?

The opening of the largest pyrosome is so big a person can swim inside.

This is going on my list of Things To Do Before I Die.

The first photo link didn't work, by the way. I was too lazy to check the code.

[eub.livejournal.com]

This book Jellies has just one mention of pyrophores: a small picture, more beautiful than anything I can find online -- its outside is a dawn-pink patterned with filaments and red glints in a halo of blue haze, but inside is a view of sharp rainbow sparks -- and its caption: The light from a pyrosome can be seen for up to 100 meters!.

I had no idea there were any such things.

I wonder if, given their modular colonial nature, colossal ones can be assembled by mad scientists.

Hm, try the link I just edited in.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

Yup, that one worked. Could nature get any cooler? They're amazing. So beyooootiful!

I had no idea either.

I don't know about mad scientists, but I sort of want to assemble one out out fabric and see if I could be one for Halloween. How would I make it glow? I like costumes that no one gets.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Electroluminescent wire, maybe? A friend used it for multicolored glowing wings.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

That's stuff looks great, but from what I was reading if I wanted to make it a full-body costume I'd have to stand near a wall-outlet at parties.

Wow, wings though; those must have been lovely.