Scientists discover 'longest living' creature off Australian coast.

While it may resemble a man-made object or proof of alien life, the siphonophore Apolemia is instead the longest living thing on the planet.

Research from the California-based oceanography nonprofit the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered a strange spiral formation floating in the open ocean near the Ningaloo Canyons in Australia. But while many may assume this is a man-made object or proof of alien life, the truth is in fact far simpler yet also far more shocking: It's simply the longest living thing on the planet.

Called a siphonophore Apolemia, though known in some places as a "long stringy stingy thingy," the massive tentacle-like creature was found 630 meters below the surface of the ocean off the coast of Australia. The entity is not a single living being, but is in fact a colony of tiny creatures called zooids, which attach together and clone themselves to become a cohesive entity together.