There it was, going about its business at 5,000 feet below the surface, terrorizing the other deep-sea creatures when all of a sudden it was caught on camera by an ROV. It tries to scuttle out of the picture like Bigfoot on a bad hair day, but that ROV operator stays with it.
And we do mean IT.
It's not often that a deep-sea creature stirs such debate on the likes of Snopes or Reddit. It's been called everything from a jellyfish, to whale placenta to a fishing net.
Personally, I can see where one Snopes contributor was coming from when they called it a fitted bedsheet. Granted a dirty, nasty bedsheet — but that's what the waving, flapping surfaces look like to me.
Towards the end the creature gives up a view of some more traditional-looking parts that, though equally disgusting as the rest of the flapping monster, helped experts from the Monterey Bay Aquarium identify it as a Deepstaria enigmatica, a rare deep sea jellyfish.
Have a look at this thing and tell us what it reminds you of. Remember, I've called dirty bedsheet. LINK
Via Snopes, Geekologie
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