“Sea Jellies”: all photos opensource
Chrysaora quinquecirrha
Jellyfish have no specialized circulatory, digestive, or central nervous systems, yet they are one of the most successful creatures on Earth as measured by biomass. Some are cannibals; some have fatal stings; some are immortal; some glow in the dark; some are bigger than blue whales; some have gender (male or female); they are all awesome to look at.
Some are larger than blue whales.
Cyanea capillata: Called the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish
I always thought the blue whale was the largest ocean-dweller but not so! (It is the largest mammal.) Lion’s Mane Jellyfish that have washed up on beaches are around 120 feet long, the length of three school buses. This jellyfish lives in the cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, which is pretty cool ;)
Life cycle of Turritopsis nutricula
The life cycle of a normal non-immortal jellyfish is complicated, but basically they exist as polyps, which reproduce asexually by budding, and then as medussa, tiny jellyfish that swim away from the polyp, and then as the larger bell-shaped sexually mature form. Turritopsis nutricula are able to revert to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature, through a process known as transdifferentiation. Transdifferentiation is rare in biology; it’s when a differentiated stem cell takes a fate outside its established path. Basically it would be like a hair cell becoming a red blood cell, instead of a stem cell becoming a red blood cell. Transdifferentiation sounds risky and biologically pricey to me, but perhaps in evolution, great risks reap great rewards: Immortality!
In groups they are called blooms, swarms, or smacks.
A smack of jellyfish.
They are smacking into each other so to speak. This shot was taken in a aquarium, which are often backlit to highlight the jellyfishs’ loveliness.
Some glow in the dark.
Jellyfish proteins in a petri dish: Green Florescent Protein (GFP) etc.
GFP was originally isolated from Aequorea victoria and is now a common biological tool that researchers use to study cell shape and protein localization and function. The GFP gene has been modified to emit different color light, including red (RFP), yellow (YFP), cyan (CFP), magenta (MFP), and more — see beautiful beach scene above! In 2008 GFP won the Nobel Prize.
They are all awesome to look at.
Mediterranean Jellyfish
Palau Jellyfish
Flower Hat Jellyfish
Larger than blue whales even in total mass?? Or just length? Do you know what the largest organism in the world is??
oh and what’s the whole phenotype kingdom, phylum etc?? inquiring minds want to know…and don’t want to look it up :-p
here’s my jellyfish story. I was sailing on Lake Montauk with a friend in dinky little sailboat. We capsized as usual cause we were trying to go too fast. As we’re flipping the boat over, a swarm of jellyfish came in and attacked us! They stung us all over and we abandoned our attempt by climbing on top of the overturned boat. After waiting a long time the jellyfish didn’t go away, but my friend looks at me and says, “You know I have to be at work in half an hour…” So we decide to just suck it up jump in the water and get stung and flip the boat over. But by this time the mast had sunk into the mud at the bottom and there was no moving the boat. So after a few minutes of getting stung up again we jumped on top of the boat. About a half a mile to shore we decided we had to abandon ship and swim back to his truck. So enduring the jelly fish once again we swam back to the shore, ran to his truck (since we misjudged where we were and the tide). He looks at me and goes, “Well, good luck. See ya,” and gets in his truck and goes to work. So not know what to do I go back to the shore and see 2 marine patrol boats circlng the sailboat. As I’m watching this, a cop comes up to me and says,
“Hey, kid. Is that your boat?”
“Yeah”
“Was anyone else with you?”
“Yeah, me and my friend but we swam back to shore and he left for work.”
“Oh, ok. Well see those 2 boats out there? The first one is trying to flip the boat over so they can bring it back. The second one…with the long pole in the water…is looking for your dead bodies…”
He then calls on the radio, “Hey, guys I found the kids they’re ok.”
The response on the other end is, “Oh good. Alright we got the boat up and will bring it in. I guess it’s beer o’ clock!”
I had red marks like slashes all over my arms and legs and neck from the jelly fish and of course embarrassment…
That was kind of a long comment huh…sorry
Jesus Christ James I have the chills! What a story.
Now for the factoids –
mass: blue whale > Lions Mane
length: Lions Mane > blue whales
naming scheme (phyla etc. of jellyfish): complicated — use the term “gelatinous zooplankton” for a catch-all, with the caveat that it’s not precise
largest organism: skin. oh wait, that’s largest organ…maybe