Carnival of Evolution and Giant Jelly Explained

The latest edition of Carnival of Evolution is now up at Pharyngula. As usual, it’s filled with fabulous posts on evolution (including a fascinating piece on satin bowerbirds and how a researcher used the male birds’ disdain for red things to pick out the smart birds). PZ was also kind enough to include some pictures of his Icelandic adventure in this month’s carnival. Check it out. Now.

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Now onto some old (not that old), but super-cool news: Have you seen the video of the giant jelly?

Wicked cool, but what the hell is it, right?

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the esteemed scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have the answer. The mysterious blob is Deepstaria reticulum and it was discovered in 1966. In the last 20 years, scientists have seen this organism on 29 dives. In other words, it’s old (but still super-cool) news.