‘Alien' Transparent Sea Creature With Many Legs Looks Like 'Men in Black' Organism: What Is a Phronima?

An alien creature with a transparent body was caught by a group of fishermen at sea, according to viral video posted recently. A first glance of the animal suggests it has a resemblance of a critter and arthropod straight from an alien movie.

Fisherman Finds Sea Creature

The incident was uploaded as a Twitter video under the account "@TheFigen_" on Saturday, January 7, showing that a person holding a see-through alien-like creature, which was struggling to get out of the person's grip through the erratic movement of its legs and antennae.

Reports indicate that the individual holding the marine creature was a fisherman from the same clip, which LadBible reported taken at sea a while ago but has only reappeared on social media as part of a second round of viral videos according to the Daily Star UK.

The tweet says that the transparent sea creature was found by fishermen who were wondering what kind of fish is it, a caption saying "tell me this is not an alien." Due to the bizarre appearance of the marine animal, Twitter users replied on the post giving their own take of its identity.

One user said it was a "forbidden jello," while another is demanding the ones involved in the video to put it back into the water, as it was perceived by some people to be struggling. Although many users where clueless what kind of animal species is it, one twitter user uploaded a photo as a reply saying it was a phronima, which roams the deepest parts of the world's oceans.

What is a Phronima?

The unusual creature in the video is not an extraterrestrial character from "Men in Black" or "Aliens" but rather likely a phronima, a parasite that can be found in all of the world's oceans except in the polar regions, according to scientists from the research vessel Nautilus. They described the animals which looks like critters as alien-like creatures.

In its video report, the EVNautilus YouTube channel said the species belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, whose members are called arthropods. These are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, segmented body, and paired jointed appendages like scorpions, centipedes, crustaceans, and among others.

There are many characterizations for the sea animal due to its morphological features that resembles other living organisms of today. The Smithsonian Institution describes it to be a tiny animal yet has the appearance of a shrimplike creature that is no more than 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long.

In spite its small size, phronima is as ferocious as a shark, according to the institution, which said its huge claws grab the prey and its tiny mouth rips it into pieces. The predatory advantage of phrinoma comes from the fact that its prey never sees what is coming due to its transparent body which blends into the surrounding water.

Similar incidents like the ones involving the fishermen are possible to occur again, as scientists have said a large portion of the world's ocean remains undiscovered. While the phrinoma is already on the taxonomical database, there are still like unknown creatures out there waiting to be discovered by researchers.