Watch 'spaghetti monster' with dozens of pink-tipped sausage legs swimming near Nazca Ridge

Researchers exploring the seafloor off the coast of Chile recently captured mesmerizing footage of a flying spaghetti monster — a carnivorous, colonial creature with countless milky-white arms.

A flying spaghetti monster floating in dark ocean waters.
The flying spaghetti monster (Bathyphysa conifera) is a rarely seen type of colonial organism.
(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

New footage shows a "flying spaghetti monster" waving its many arms nearly 2,200 feet (665 meters) below the surface, near an underwater mountain off the coast of Chile.

Scientists captured the footage with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed from the research vessel Falkor (too) close to a previously unexplored seamount on the Nazca Ridge, an underwater mountain chain in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. In the video, the spaghetti monster (Bathyphysa conifera) is filmed up close, revealing the creature's pink-tipped, sausage-like arms and other filamentous appendages.

Sascha Pare
Staff writer

Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.