''Halitrephes maasi'', commonly known as the firework jellyfish, is a species of

deep-sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combination of low tempe ...

hydrozoan Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial sp ...

of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Halicreatidae Halicreatidae is a family (biology), family of hydrozoans. The family comprises 6 genera and 9 species. Taxonomy References

Halicreatidae, Trachymedusae Cnidarian families {{hydrozoa-stub ...

. Sightings have been reported at depths of near the

Revillagigedo Archipelago The Revillagigedo Islands (, ) or Revillagigedo Archipelago are a group of four volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, known for their unique ecosystem. They lie approximately from Socorro Island south and southwest of Cabo San Lucas, the south ...

off the Baja California Peninsula. Although not much is known regarding this species, ''H. maasi'' has been observed in both

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

waters of the Atlantic, Indo-Pacific, Antarctic, Mediterranean, and eastern Pacific. This

hydromedusa ''Hydromedusa'', commonly known as the South American snake-necked turtles, is a genus of turtles in the family (biology), family Chelidae. They are quite closely related to the South American side-necked swamp turtles (''Acanthochelys'') and th ...

is typically

bathypelagic The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypela ...

, most commonly found in oxygen-minimal zones and deep waters. Like all cnidarians, ''H. maasi'' is a

diploblastic Diploblasty is a condition of the blastula in which there are two primary germ layers: the ectoderm and endoderm. Diploblastic organisms are organisms which develop from such a blastula, and include Cnidaria and Ctenophora, formerly grouped toge ...

acoelomate The coelom (or celom) is the main body cavity in many animals and is positioned inside the body to surround and contain the digestive tract and other organs. In some animals, it is lined with mesothelium. In other animals, such as molluscs, it r ...

metazoan Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ho ...

. It has only one opening that functions as both its mouth and its

anus In mammals, invertebrates and most fish, the anus (: anuses or ani; from Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is the external body orifice at the ''exit'' end of the digestive tract (bowel), i.e. the opposite end from the mouth. Its function is to facil ...

References

External links

Deep Sea Jelly at
Halicreatidae Taxa described in 1909 Monotypic cnidarian genera Hydrozoan genera {{hydrozoa-stub