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A curtain descends

Siphonophores, relatives of jellyfish made of compound units, drift in the endless space of the open ocean. Their many tentacles, studded with batteries of stinging cells, form a beaded curtain of deadly fishing lines to catch prey. Researchers found this foot-long siphonophore (Rosacea) in the Sargasso Sea, on a 2006 cruise on the NOAA ship R/V Ron Brown to catalogue planktonic animals and sequence their DNA—part of the Census of Marine Zooplankton project.
(Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)