Пиросомы: светящиеся колонии морских существ

Genus of marine filter feeders
Automatic taxobox
| name = Pyrosoma
| image = Pyrosoma atlanticum. JPG
| image caption = Pyrosoma atlanticum
| taxon = Pyrosoma
| authority = Péron, 1804 made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several metres in length. They are commonly called "sea pickles". Other nicknames include "sea worms", "sea squirts", "fire bodies", and "cockroaches of the sea". Pyrosomes are brightly bioluminescent, flashing a pale blue green light that can be seen for many tens of metres. Pyrosomes are closely related to salps, and are sometimes called "fire salps". Sailors on the ocean occasionally observe calm seas containing many pyrosomes, all luminescing on a dark night.

The name Pyrosoma derives from the Greek words pyro, meaning "fire", and soma, meaning "body".

In 2017, pyrosomes were observed to have spread in unprecedented numbers along the Pacific coast of North America as far north as Alaska. The causes remain unknown, but one hypothesis is that this bloom may have resulted in part from unusually warm water along the coast over several preceding years. Scientists were concerned that should there be a massive die off of the pyrosomes, it could create a huge dead zone as the decomposition of their bodies could consume much of the oxygen dissolved in the surrounding seawater.

Many type of organisms have been spotted eating pyrosome; so far these organisms are sea turtles, sea birds, different species of fish (their primary source of prey are pyrosomes), sea urchins and crabs.