Monster jellyfish forms ‘alien planet’ for school of fish

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Monster jellyfish forms

‘alien planet’ for school of fish

 

This was one of the coolest and most unexpected wildlife encounters I’ve had while doing field research. This impressive beast is known as Anomalorhiza shawi, and it blew our minds, while we were researching coral reef fish ‘algal-eating’ (and, thus, ‘ecosystem-protecting’) behavior in Thailand. Experiences like this are a MAJOR perk to being a marine biologist.

Learn more about my life as a marine biologist here: http://SciAll.org

Learn more about my research in marine biology here: http://mikegil.com/research/

 

Complete a short survey after watching here (this helps me make more videos that show the action and adventure behind REAL, cutting-edge science from my career as a marine biologist!):
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Special thanks to my amazing partner and incredible photographer, Heather Hillard, for the brilliant still shots.

The music was created by my brother, Danny Gil, and his awesome band Downfall 2012: http://SciAll.org/art-and-science/Downfall2012

*Disclaimer: I speculate that this is a true commensalism, since it seems unlikely that the fish/feather stars/crabs harm (or benefit) the jellyfish, but to better understand this, we’d need to probe it with science ;).

Thanks for watching — let’s Get The Secret Out…

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