Pyrosome

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Thaliacea

Order: Pyrosomida

Family: Pyrosomatidae

Genus: Pyrosoma

Species: atlanticum

Like salps, pyrosomes are a type of colonial tunicate. They move with the coordinated beating of cilia in each individual zooid, moving water from the outside of the tube to the inside that then exits from the one opening in the colony. They are unusually bioluminescent and one of the more obvious organisms seen on blackwater dives. Look for symbiotic shrimp on the inside of the colony.