Last year, a videographer from Neptune Canada spotted this odd creature floating deep under the northeastern Pacific Ocean off of Vancouver Island. Was Batman having a brave and bold adventure with The Atom in his new micro-Bat-bathyscape? Not exactly. This bobbing Bat-signal is a cilia-covered predatory cnidarian and a relative of sea jellies:
During a deep-sea (2324m) cable route survey we encountered Batman gliding over a field of pillow lava [...] Marine biologist Bill Austin has suggested it is likely a comb jelly (ctenophore). George Matsumoto, a ctenophore (comb jelly) expert at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research instutute identified it as a lobate ctenophore of the Lampocteis genus.
Recent and related: The billowing beauty and/or grossness of Deepstaria enigmatica.
[Via The Occultist]