这个深海“巨人”实际上是由数百万个“克隆体”组成的

这个深海“巨人”实际上是由数百万个“克隆体”组成的

Just in case you didn’t think the ocean wasn’t alien enough, researchers off Western Australia have filmed an otherworldly underwater creature comprised of millions of interconnected “clones.” Ecstatic scientists are calling the specimen the largest ever discovered.

当你觉得海洋还不够陌生，西澳大利亚州的研究人员拍摄了一种来自另一个世界的水下生物，它由数百万相互关联的“克隆体”组成。欣喜若狂的科学家们称这个标本是迄今为止发现的最大的标本。

“Check out this beautiful *giant* siphonophore Apolemia recorded on #NingalooCanyons expedition,” read a Monday Twitter post by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, noting its “strange UFO-like feeding posture.” Indeed, the deep-sea denizen’s spiral-tacular shape and luminescent color might evoke an interstellar anomaly from a science-fiction flick.

周一，施密特海洋研究所在推特上发文称:“请查看#NingalooCanyons探险队记录的这种美丽的*巨大*虹吸虫Apolemia”，并指出它“奇怪的、类似ufo的进食姿势”。事实上，深海居民的螺旋状外形和发光的颜色可能会让人联想起科幻电影中的星际异常。

“Omg I have CHILLS. This is an ANIMAL. I’m guessing it’s over a hundred feet long, forming a spiral in the middle of the deep sea,” weighed in Rebecca Helm, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville in a lengthy Twitter dissertation. “I’ve gone on numerous expeditions and have never, EVER, seen anything like this.”

“天哪，我浑身发冷。这是一只动物。”北卡罗莱纳阿什维尔大学的助理教授丽贝卡·赫尔姆在推特上发表了一篇很长的论文，她在论文中称:“我猜它有一百多英尺长，在深海中形成了一个螺旋形。”“我参加过无数次探险，从来没有见过这样的东西。”

“This animal is a kind of jelly,” she added, noting that it’s “made of millions of interconnected clones, like if the Borg and the Clone Wars had a baby together.”

“这种动物是一种果冻，”她补充说，并指出它是“由数百万相互关联的克隆组成的，就像博格和克隆人战争一起生了孩子一样。”

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, the jellyfish expert said that “there are about a dozen different jobs a clone can do in the colony, & each clone is specialized to a particular task.” As depicted in an accompanying video, one of the aquatic colony’s jobs is feeding, which the siphonophore accomplishes by dangling its tendrils in a line formation in the open ocean. This particular specimen is unique, Helm points out, because it is “hunting in a galaxy-like spiral, the long wisp-like tentacles draped below.”

如果这还不够令人印象深刻的话，这位水母专家说:“在这个群体中，一个克隆体可以做大约12种不同的工作，而且每个克隆体都专门从事一项特定的任务。”正如在视频中所描述的那样，这个水生群落的工作之一就是进食，这是通过在开阔的海洋中悬挂卷须来完成的。Helm指出，这个特别的标本是独一无二的，因为它是“在星系般的螺旋中捕食，长长的如缕状的触手垂在下面。”

And at almost 50 feet in diameter and about 154 feet long, the siphonophore could be the largest one “ever recorded,” writes Schmidt Ocean on Twitter. To put the find in perspective, Helm said that most of the colonies she encounters are between about 7 inches and 3 feet long.

施密特海洋所在推特上写道:直径近50英尺，长度约154英尺，这可能是“有记录以来”最大的水母。赫尔姆说，她发现的大多数都在7英寸到3英尺之间。

Social-media oceanographers are going gaga over the discovery.

社交媒体海洋学家对这一发现感到兴奋不已。