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Spreading the Jelly

This “colonial” jelly a siphonophore of the Rosacea genus was spied in April 2006 by divers in the blue waters of the Sargasso Sea during a Census of Marine Zooplankton cruise. Siphonophores are made up of multiple units, each specialized for a function like swimming, feeding, or reproduction. This “modular” construction allows some siphonophores to grow very large, over 100 feet in the deep ocean. (Photo by Laurence Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)