A seabeast The unusual sea creature, which looks like a detached eyeball and has a painful sting, has been found in large numbers on the Texas coast.
Nicknamed spaghetti monsters, Rhizophysa are siphonophores, a type of marine animal closely related to the dreaded Portuguese man o’ war.
Like their famous relative, they are actually a group of animals with tentacles that cause a painful sting when touched.
Now they are washing up in large numbers in the US state of Texas – and experts are advising people not to touch them.
Jace Tunnell from the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University personally discovered dozens of Rhizophysa stranded on the beach.
‘The spaghetti monsters have been washing up over the past three weeks along Mustang and North Padre Islands in Corpus Christi, Texas,’ he said.
‘This past weekend there was a large influx of them on the beach where I counted around 30 over along 100 metres of shoreline right at the water line.
‘The creatures look like an eyeball stretched out on the beach.
‘Their gas-filled float at the top of the organism has a black dot that really does look like the pupil of an eye.
‘In some that we have found, they will have thick tentacles that hang down that look like spaghetti – hence how they have the nickname of spaghetti monster.’
Mr Tunnell has also personally felt the sting of the Rhizophysa.
‘From personal experience, I can tell you they do sting. However, the sting is not as intense as the man o’ war. The sting only lasted about an hour,’ he said.
‘The spaghetti monsters live in the open ocean, so it’s not common to see them washing up here. Only during the perfect conditions of winds, waves, and current do we see them around March and April.
‘These animals are fairly small – especially when they wash up on the beach, because they retract their tentacles – so it is rare for people to see them. A six foot-long spaghetti monster can retract its tentacles to two inches once washed up on shore, so you really have to know what you are looking for to see them.’
Mr Tunnell said that Rhizophysa comprises four different segments – a gas-filled bladder on top for floatation, tentacles for feeding, a digestive system, and a reproductive system.
Other relatives include the feather boa siphonophore, woolly siphonophore, rocket ship siphonophore and Christmas tree siphonophore.
‘We are constantly amazed at the different life we find on our weekly beach surveys,’ said Mr Tunnell.
‘These spaghetti monsters are just another example of the exciting things we encounter that we can help educate the public about to get them interested in protecting our oceans.’
