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I’m drawing fish for Lent and sharing daily on my patreon discord server! 

Jingle bells in the deep sea.🔔🎄✨⁠

This siphonophore, Bargmannia lata, has a “head” (nectophore) made of swimming bells and a “stem” (siphosome) that contains parts for feeding, defense, and reproduction.⁠

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As with the ctenophores, siphonophores are found from the ocean surface to the seafloor. Also like ctenophores, many siphonophores are bioluminescent, which makes them prime targets for MBARI’s Biodiversity and Biooptics team to investigate. Siphonophores range in size from 10 millimeters to 30 meters (less than half an inch to almost 100 feet)—longer than a blue whale! They are important midwater predators, deploying long curtains of stinging tentacles to prey upon a variety of crustaceans and fish. These gelatinous animals are exceptionally fragile and easily fall to pieces, so they must be collected carefully with the ROV.⁠ Happy holidays, deep-sea squad!

you have reached….

the siphonophore zone!