Ultimate Teamwork

Chuniphyes are siphonophores—colonial organisms in the same phylum as jellyfish, working together to survive. Also called “rocket ships”, these animals have rocket-shaped nectophores (the top part of the siphonophore that looks like a mushroom) that they use to push themselves through water and a chain of alternating feeding stomachs and gonads that can grow indefinitely. See more images of mid-water creatures in our slideshow.