Move aside Blue Whales! This spiral Siphonophore may be the longest animal ever recorded

Researchers exploring deep oceans off western coast of Australia have discovered what y are claiming may be longest animal ever recorded. spiral Siphophore spotted by team of scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's Falkor research vessel has been estimated to be 150-feet-long, which is an approximate 50 feet longer than a blue whale - widely held to be largest animal to have ever existed.

expedition, which plumbed to depths of almost 4,500m via its SuBastian underwater robot discovered as many as 30 new underwater species - or at very least, species that haven't ever been observed in those waters - including a variety of bioluminescent octopus squid, a long-tailed sea cucumber, various molluscs and barnacles, as well as ors that have been collected and will be exhibited at Western Australian Museum, as per Schmidt Ocean Institute.

'Longest Animal Ever'

However, it is sighting of incredible Siphophore that is most remarkable, and justifiably so. It was found while submersible robot was on its way back up from a long dive, at a time when team monitoring it least expected to find something and were purportedly even dispersing from control room aboard Falkor.

Hyptic visuals of creature reveal a gigantic spiraling white-coloured tube, with a clear 'origin' and perhaps even an end, with spirals even overlapping at certain points.

What are Siphophores? 

A taxomical check reveals Siphophores to actually comprise a 'colony' of zooids - essentially clusters of cloned cells that allow m to have such a long body. y are kwn to exist in deep sea, and are carnivorous, using dangling tentacles to catch small prey, much like Jellyfish. In fact, it is t from Blue whale, rar from a variety of jellyfish that this particular Siphophore specimen is taking record of 'world's longest animal'. Lion's Mane Jellyfish, which is ar creature worthy of Googling, is billed as having a length of up to 120 feet, mostly in tentacles.

What researchers said

Dr Nerida Wilson, who led month-long research voy in Indian Ocean and spotted Siphophore at deep-sea canyons off Australia's Nigaloo coast, didn't over-science up her description when she was speaking to New York Times, saying that it looked like a UFO, though perhaps a galaxy is a more accurate representation of what it resembles. 

“We suspected se deep sea areas would be diverse but we have been blown away by significance of what we have seen,” Dr Wilson said, though she added a caveat about Siphophore's length, saying "Just a quick fact check though, we never estimated it's length, and are working on measuring it accurately. This Might Be Longest Creature Ever Seen in Ocean" 

“re is so much we don’t kw about deep sea, and re are countless species never before seen,” added Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute.