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posted by CoolHand on Sunday August 16 2015, @06:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the touched-by-his-noodly-appendage dept.

Actually, "it" (the bizarre-looking creature) is Bathyphysa conifer, a deep-sea critter that was recently seen swimming off the coast of Angola. Workers at the oil and gas company BP videotaped this strange-looking animal while collecting video footage some 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) under the sea with a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). Not knowing what the noodle-armed creature was, the BP crewmembers named it after what they thought it most resembled: the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Similar to corals, the spaghettilike B. conifer is made up of many different multicellular organisms known as zooids. These organisms are a lot like regular, solitary animals, except that they're attached to other zooids, forming a more complex organism. One zooid, developed from a fertilized egg, starts the process, and then other zooids bud from the original zooid until a whole animal is formed, according to the siphonophore website.

The implications for Pastafarianism are staggering.


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  • (Score: 2) by bugamn on Monday August 17 2015, @03:57AM

    by bugamn (1017) on Monday August 17 2015, @03:57AM (#223756)

    If I remember well, those kinds of animals can reconstitute from a fraction of a colony, while a man can't. But I think that isn't all. Maybe the way those cells develop?

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