''Bathochordaeus charon'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of giant

larvacean Larvaceans or appendicularians, class Appendicularia, are solitary, free-swimming tunicates found throughout the world's oceans. Like most tunicates, larvaceans are filter feeders. Unlike most other tunicates, they keep their tadpole-like shape a ...

, a solitary, free-swimming

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ca ...

that filter feeds in surface waters. The species was named after

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...

, the mythical Greek ferryman who carried the souls of the dead across the rivers dividing the world of the living from the world of the dead.Mysterious Ocean Blob Found for First Time in a Century
''National Geographic'', 6 December 2016. First description of this very large larvacean was provided in 1900 by

Carl Chun Carl Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist. Chun was born in Höchst, today a part of Frankfurt, and studied zoology at the University of Leipzig, where from 1878 to 1883 he was privat-docent of zoology and an a ...

from two specimens collected during the Valdivia expedition in 1898–1899. The first definitive record of ''Bathochordaeus charon'' since its original description was obtained in 2016 by R. E. Sherlock, K. R. Walz and B. H. Robison, using a ROV in the

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

, California, USA. A small number of ''

Bathochordaeus ''Bathochordaeus'' is a genus of larvacean tunicates in the family Oikopleuridae. References * van der Land, J. (2001). Appendicularia, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine ...

'' have been found near

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, or off the

Nansei islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonagun ...

but they differ significantly from ''B. charon''.

References

* Chun C
Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres. Jena: Gustav Fischer
1900. p. 519–21.

External links

The giant larvacean Bathochordaeus, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), YouTube, 28 April 2017
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27977307 Appendicularia Animals described in 1900