Strange and Beautiful Deep Sea Jellyfish

What does this creature remind you of? A space alien? A virus? A cartoon? It’s real, a real jellyfish recorded by an ROV from the ship Okeanos Explorer on a NOAA expedition to the Mariana Trench. This video was taken 2.3 miles below the ocean’s surface.

(YouTube link)

Scientific American has more:

Scientists believe this animal belongs to the genus Crossota, a group of jellies that does not have a sessile polyp stage; all phases of their lives are ocean drifters. They also believe this animal is an ambush predator – note the posture it had assumed in the first half of the video: its bell motionless with its tentacles outstretched like the struts of a spider’s web, waiting for something to bumble into them. The red canals, they suggest, appear to connect the bright yellow objects, which may be gonads.