Emily Chan
The first phase involves making thousands of identical copies of themselves, creating huge swarms that spread across the ocean and consume enormous quantities of algae matter. This population consists of all females.
Then, the salps produce eggs that are fertilized by nearby males. The eggs develop internally, and the salps give birth to live offspring.
The newly hatched young will swim off to mature into adults. Eventually, the swarm will transition to a population of all males that fertilize the eggs.
It is believed that salps are the fastest-growing multicellular animal on the planet. They increase their body length by up to 10 percent every hour and reach full maturity in 48 hours.
Salps look about as appealing as snot, but people have described swimming with them as a pleasant experience, even referring to them as marshmallows.
