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Sydney Morning Herald -
'Flying Spaghetti Monster' caught on video
Rare video shows deep sea 'spaghetti monster'
Scientists at the UK's National
Oceanography Centre release rare video of the 'flying spaghetti monster'
- a deep sea creature filmed off the coast of Angola.
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The International Space StationThe team of oil and gas workers spotted the bizarre-looking creature - later identified as a siphonophore - about 1325 metres underwater, near the seabed off the coast of Angola in southern Africa.
They nicknamed it the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" after the god of the satirical religion Pastafarianism.
"Flying Spaghetti Monster": A creature
called a siphonophore found about 1325 metres underwater, near the
seabed off the coast of Angola. Photo: Supplied
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Dr Jones is part of a project called Serpent, which uses videos such
as these - taken by oil riggers and other people working in the deep sea
- to catalogue rarely seen marine life.Dr Jones' colleague Philip Pugh identified the creature, which closely resembles an upturned bowl of spaghetti, as a specimen of Bathyphysa conifera.
Specimens up to 40 metres long have been found, making them the world's longest animals, according to a New Scientist report.
Siphonophores belong to a group of aquatic animals that include jellyfish and coral.
A single siphonophore is made up of a tightly-knit colony of organisms that grow by cloning themselves. The colony can comprise thousands of organisms, which perform different functions to keep the animal alive. Some feed; some swim; others reproduce.
The long "noodly appendages" extending from the bulbous clump of "spaghetti" are used to catch food.
The most famous cousin of Bathyphysa conifer is the deadly Portuguese Man O' War.
Dr Jones said he was quite taken aback by the uproar the creature caused online and in the media, with the video tallying more than a quarter of a million views in the first week.
"This unusual creature has sparked a huge reaction on the internet," he said.
"It is a great example of how collaboration with industry can allow us to see much more of the deep sea and its strange and wonderful marine life."
The Flying Spaghetti Monster was first described by physics graduate Bobby Henderson in a 2005 open letter protesting at the teaching of intelligent design.
According to the parody religion, this supernatural being resembles a floating clump of tangled spaghetti and meatballs, and created the universe with "His Noodly Appendages".
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