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Giant Pyrosome

Some giant prysomes can grow over 30 meters (98.4 feet) long and form a tube large enough for a person to enter!

 

The giant pyrosome is a surreal-looking, colony-forming organism that drifts through the ocean like a glowing, translucent tube. These remarkable creatures are found worldwide, mostly in tropical and temperate waters. They are commonly seen near the surface but can travel over 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) deep! 

Despite appearing to be a single creature, each pyrosome is actually made up of thousands of tiny individual animals working together as one called zooids. All the zooids are clones, and each contributes to the colony by drawing seawater through its body, filtering out plankton to eat, and expelling the water into the tube’s interior. This coordinated flow of water allows the whole structure to move slowly through the ocean. Each zooid also has luminescent organs that produce bioluminescent light when the colony is stimulated! Pyrosomes will produce this reaction when they detect light, including light from other pyrosomes.

 

 

Not much is known about the conservation status of the giant pyrosome. However, like all ocean animals, they depend on healthy, clean, abundant oceans to survive.

 

 

Protecting and restoring our oceans benefits wildlife around the world. By speaking up and working together, we can create real, measurable change for oceans and marine life. Learn more about Oceana’s campaigns to protect and restore marine biodiversity and abundance here.

 

 

  • Gauns M, Mochemadkar S, Pratihary A. et al. (2015) Biogeochemistry and ecology of Pyrosoma spinosum from the Central Arabian Sea. Zool. Stud. 54, 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40555-014-0075-6 
  • Bowlby MR, Widder EA, and Case, JF (1990). Patterns of Stimulated Bioluminescence in Two Pyrosomes (Tunicata: Pyrosomatidae). Biol. Bull. 179: 340-350.  
  • Ruppert EE, Fox RS, and Barnes, RD. (2004) Invertebrate zoology: A functional evolutionary approach (7th ed.). Cengage Learning. 

 

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