jellyfish
gregladen | January 6, 2016Warm waters around Florida have resulted in a growth of the population of Portuguese Man-of-War, or should that be Portuguese Men-of-War, an organism commonly confused with jellyfish (because they look just like jellyfish).
The PMOWs have a sting, roughly equivalent in pain level to a bee sting, and best treated at such. Do not urinate on your PMOW sting (save your urine for an actual jellyfish sting).
There are reports of many PMOWs washing up, with numerous swimmers suffering stings. The stinging tentacles, even after they fall off, are a hazard, and barefoot beachcombers can…
dr. dolittle | March 11, 2013I just came across two blogs dedicated to all things jellyfish:
JellyBiologist
Jellyfish Aquarist
Who knew there were so many people interested in jellyfish to warrant such wonderful blogs! I admit spending a lot of my free time this weekend on these blogs reading about these fascinating creatures. I found the JellyBiologist blog on Beroe jellyfish, known for eating other jellyfish, fascinating. Here is a video of these jellies from the blog:
For prior Dr. Dolittle posts on jellyfish, see:
-Amazing symbiotic relationship between algae and jellyfish
-Relaxing with jellyfish
-Engineering…
dr. dolittle | July 23, 2012Not joking. Researchers have managed to take cells from a rat and add them to a silicone layer to form a synthetic jellyfish that moves much like the real thing. The hope is to develop more complex organs that might be used for organ transplants in the future.
dr. dolittle | June 7, 2012I came across this relaxing video of comb jellyfish on Scientific American that I thought you would enjoy. I wonder if I could make this my screensaver...
milhayser | May 27, 2011
Jellyfish aren't reknowned for specialized organs; they lack brains, guts, hearts, and lungs. But some of them have eyes in spades. Mo writes on Neurophilosophy that box jellyfish have "24 eyes contained within a club-shaped sensory apparatus called a rhopalium, one of which is suspended from each side of the cube-shaped umbrella by a flexible, muscular stalk." A crystal called a stratolith weighs down each of the four rhopalia and ensures that the "upper lens eyes remain in a strictly upright position, regardless of body orientation." For the first time, researchers have shown that the…
grrlscientist | May 27, 2010tags: Amazing Jellies, jellyfish, siphonophores, gelata, gelatinous zooplankton, gelatinous marine animals, fluorescence, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Chad Widmer, Steve Haddock, QUEST, KQED, television, documentary, streaming video
Perhaps you'd like to see what some of those creatures are that are being endangered by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? This lovely video provides a glimpse of the "gelata": siphonophores, jellies and other soft, gelatinous marine animals that lack bones and brains, but nonetheless, comprise much of marine life. They are otherworldly creatures that glow in the dark…
zooillogix | October 30, 2009Beautiful and fascinating footage of a Bloodbelly Comb (not a jellyfish, but similarly gelatinous, like my brother) from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's remote operated vehicle. The laser light show comes from tiny transparent, hair-like cilia combined with trace amounts of LSD that will forever remain in your spine.
I could point out that it appears Deep Sea News ran this a few days ago, but we're not talking to them anymore since they went all "academic" on us... I bet they don't even have any shirts with wolves on them.
zooillogix | April 24, 2008Festo, a German engineering firm known for finding inspiration in biology, recently unveiled its two newest robots at the Hannover Festival.
Picture courtesy of Gizmodo
The AquaJelly and AirJelly share the same basic form - a sphere surrounded by eight mechanical tentacles run off lithium-ion batteries. In the case of the AquaJelly which functions underwater, the central sphere is a laser sealed vacuum, while the flying (floating) Air Jelly's center is a helium balloon. Most interestingly, the AquaJelly is autonomous in that it "guides itself with the help of a sensor array, communications…
zooillogix | November 29, 2007A few months back we brought you the story of giant jellies invading Japan. Well on Tuesday, the cutting edge scientific publication known as the Wall Street Journal actually sent a reporter to cover the story. The article is only mildly interesting although I do find it fascinating that they embed this video in the article but still insist on creating little pencil-pointillism portraits of the characters in the story...
zooillogix | October 16, 2007The AP just reported that project leader Dr. Larry Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Phillipine scientists returned from two weeks in the Celebes Sea, located off the Phillippines southernmost archipelago, this Tuesday with some potential new deep sea discoveries. Among the more interesting finds were a strange black jellyfish, a transparent sea cucumber and a spiny orange worm that had 10 squid-like tentacles. "I'll have to try a bite of each one with Old Bay before we determine whether they are truly new species or not" Dr. Madin joked. Adding, "you think I'm kidding,…
zooillogix | September 27, 2007So they are not actually real but this might be the next lava lamp. The "tank" contains three somewhat realistic jellyfish that swim about in all of their plastic glory. Six LEDs illuminate the critters and change color in order to "change your mood..." Soon to be available for £25, Zooillogix advises purchasing this ridiculous item but strongly warns against investing in the company that produces it.
You can pre-order here.
Is being stoned a "mood"???
sporte | September 13, 2007A reader from the UK sent me these lovely photos that he took of a jellyfish and asked for my help in identifying it. Unfortunately, while I'm pretty good with bacteria, plants, and tropical fish, my taxonomy skills don't go much farther unless I have a sample of DNA.
These photos were taken at La-Manga off the coast of southern Spain.
My Sciblings have guessed: Rhizostoma, Stomolophus meleagris, or Mastigas
If you know, we'd all appreciate an answer in the comments.
And if you don't know about much jellyfish, RPM at evolgen would like your help answering a different reader's question…
zooillogix | August 2, 2007Scientists have created a jellyfish with twelve heads in a lab at Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany. Bernd Schierwater and colleague Wolfgang Jakob (or "God" as they like to collectively call themselves) claim to have created the freakish monstrosity to study how colonies of multiheaded organisms develop in nature. By manipulating certain Cnox genes, a specific kind of gene which helps control how the bodies of jellyfish embryos form, Schierwater and Jakob caused the embryo to develop in strange ways. Simply by inhibiting the Cnox-2 gene, up to twelve heads would form. The…
zooillogix | July 6, 2007Buddenbrockia plumatellae
Discovered in 1851, the Buddenbrockia worm has long confounded scientists--it seems like a worm, but has some very unworm-like characteristics. Unlike similar looking creatures, such as nematodes, the Buddenbrockia's body does not have separate organs. Its insides are totally symmetric. According to Professor Peter Holland of Oxford University,Aeos Department of Zoology as quoted in Physorg.com, "It doesn,Aeot have a left or right side or a top or bottom ,Aei we can,Aeot even tell which end is the front!...Seen in cross section it is completely symmetrical so no way…
zooillogix | July 3, 2007Japanese fisherman and power plants have been under siege over the last year by giant jellyfish. While the cause of the swarming is unknown, the nuisance is severe. Growing to almost 500lbs, Nemopelima nomurai destroys fishing nets and poisons fish when trapped in nets. Their smaller brethren, the moon jellies, have been blocking intake vents for seaside power plants. In an effort to find an economic solution to this problem, the Japanese have developed both a baking powder and a crunchy, delicious salted snack derived from the gelatinous monsters. Although these inventions have yet to be…
zooillogix | April 1, 2007Most jellyfish drift freely in the ocean current but the dangerous box jellyfish is an active swimmer. To help it navigate, the box jellyfish has 24 eyes that dangle from their cube-shaped bodies. One set of eyes is remarkably well developed and can detect color, size and shape, similar to our own eyes. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers recently set up a jellyfish obstacle course to test their vision and were surprised by how deftly the box jellyfish were able to avoid objects in the tank. However, their ability to jump through flaming hoops left much to be desire
Clearly there will…
zooillogix | March 21, 2007>We're going to need a bigger boat, Lion's Mane Jellyfish. cyanea capillata Photo Credit Paul Johnson
A swarm of large, stinging jellyfish attacked female swimmers in the World Swimming Championships off of St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday. Winds blew the jellies, most likely of the massive lion's mane variety, into the course area, where they tormented participants throughout the race. Most of the women emerged from the water covered in red rashes from head to toe. Said second-place finisher, Cassandra Patten, "It sounds weird, but it actually broke up the swimming a…