By Anupum Pant
Pyrosomes are very interesting creatures, or better, a collection of thousands of these tiny creatures. These are worm like creatures found in the shallow depths of oceans, shaped like cylinders or butterfly nets. What appears like a huge worm, which can range from a few centimetres to the size of a sperm whale, are in reality a massive colony of tiny little creatures called zooids. All of them tied together in kind of a tunic.
These zooids have openings on both side of the cylinder, outside and inside. This acts like a huge filtration system, which takes in water from the outside and sends jets from the inside. And it’s been recently found that when brushed by an object, these zooids light up in different colours to coordinate a series of water jets, in order to drift away in a specific direction. So it’s being said that they may coordinate their jet-like propulsion system by flashing lights at each other