Description: Large pelagic colonial tunicate, can be as long as 10-20m. Pyrosomas are characteristcally open at one end and form a point at the other. Unable to identifiy this species of Pyrosoma from these images but this example bears quite a close similarity to Pyrosoma spinosum which is found in the Gulf of Mexico. Item Type: Image Title: Pyrosoma sp. Copyright: SERPENT project Species: Pyrosoma sp. Behaviour: Suspended in the water column Site: Atlantic -- South Atlantic -- Block 31 Site Description: Midwater Depth (m): 856.08 Latitude: 6 deg 12' 21" S Longitude: 13 deg 43' 07" W Countries: West Africa -- Angola Rig: Seven Seas Project Partners: BP, Subsea 7 Deposited By: Miss Moira MacLean Deposited On: 09 December 2010
This is the cloned, sexual phase of a pelagic tunicate. The individuals, each a sequential hermaphrodite, lie in a double chain oriented back to back. Eventually the chain will break apart and each individual will sexually produce an asexual solitary salp. Inconceivably large numbers of aggregate salps can cover hundreds of square miles of ocean.
