A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Deep Sea. 🛸💫 ⁣ In the deep-sea, gelatinous organisms can take many strange forms. The bell of this 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘮 spreads out wide like a thin, translucent bed sheet and is used to capture prey by trapping animals inside. One crafty crustacean, a marine isopod in the genus, 𝘈𝘯𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘴, can sneak inside and live in the jelly’s bell. Marine isopods are relatives of the pill bugs you might see in your garden, except these grow to seven centimeters or almost three inches, in length. This particular species always seems to be crawling inside the bell of a Deepstaria jelly, and they haven’t been found on any other species yet. Like most crustacean parasites of jellyfish, Anuropus probably damages the jelly somewhat, but it can't be too aggressive or it would eat itself out of it’s hiding place. Researchers suspect that these hitchhikers may also eat some of the food that the jelly captures.⁣ ⁣ #hitchhikersguide #hitchhiker #parasite #deepsealife #deepstaria #isopod #jellyfish #deepseajellyfish #deepsea #ocean #oceanlife #sealife #midwater #pelagic #plankton #mesopelagic #MBARI #underwaterphotography #marinebiology