Everyone like a singular - looking at , washed up creature on a beach . Well , except for the creatures themselves , presumptively , whose final journeying clearlydidn’t endin the most idealistic manner . The latest example come courtesy of New Zealand and features an creature that has been varyingly distinguish as a biological “ volcano ” to , of form , an “ alien ” .
It is neither of these thing , but it certainly stand out as being aesthetically sensational . That was probably what was on the mind of the family walking along the beach in north Auckland sooner this calendar month when they first serendipitously stumbled across the atrocious beastie .
consort toStuff.co.nz , Eve Dickinson , a member of said family , noted her Logos imagine it looked like a volcano , which to be sightly , it does – more like a bubble tea leaf variation , though . It was clearly a Portuguese man-of-war of some sort , but was it something rare , perhaps a critter from the deepest deepness of the enigmatic Pacific Ocean ?
lamentably not . aver by a marine biological science technician , it bump to be a lion ’s mane jellyfish , a fairly uncouth wad in New Zealand ’s coastal pee during the warmer summer months . Saying that , September – the end of winter , start of fountain in the Southern Hemisphere – is an other time for say jellyfish type to make an appearance . The same was said of asimilar incidentback in 2017 .
This metal money is thought to beCyanea rosea , but those belonging to the genusCyanea , like thecapilataspecies , are sometimes referred to as lion ’s head of hair man-of-war too .
This is one of the largest species of jellyfish around , perhaps even the largest . They ’ve got a Brobdingnagian statistical distribution – they can be found in theatrical role of the Pacific , within the Arctic and northern Atlantic , and more .
They expend their tentacles , from which their conversational name is derived , to snaffle prey . They have toxin - containingnematocyststhat are able-bodied to stun fair large fishes , so best keep your own limb off should you ever see one of these along the coast .
Said tentacles , by the style , can reach up to 58 meters across ( 190 feet ) . In fact , they ’re never not gigantic , at least by our banner . Even their bell ( the main part of their body ) is around 2 metre ( 7 feet ) across . All in all , their dimensions , perOceana , can occasionally match that of the blue hulk , which is quite excellently the largest animal in the public .
Overfishing , contamination , and anthropogenic clime change are think to be inadvertentlymaking thing more comfortablefor these squiggly beasties in general . It ’s not clear how these specific , cold - H2O dwelling jellyfish are dealing with warmer waters , but our natural action might mean they increasingly have access to more fair game , or perhaps notice iteasier to capture their prey , while also concentrate predator Book of Numbers .