Medusa color. Jellyfish
Jellyfish can rightfully be called one of the most mysterious inhabitants of the depths of the sea, arousing interest and a certain concern. Who are they, where did they come from, what varieties are there in the world, what are they life cycle whether they are so dangerous, as the popular rumor tells - I want to know about all this for sure.
Jellyfish appeared more than 650 million years ago, they can be called one of the oldest organisms on Earth.
About 95% of the body of a jellyfish is water, it is also their habitat. Most jellyfish live in salt water, although there are species that prefer freshwater. Jellyfish - the phase of the life cycle of representatives of the genus Medusozoa, "sea jelly" alternates with a motionless asexual phase of motionless polyps, from which they are formed by budding after maturation.
The name was introduced in the 18th century by Karl Linnaeus, he saw in these strange organisms a certain resemblance to the mythical Medusa Gorgona, thanks to the presence of tentacles that flutter like hair. With their help, the jellyfish catches small organisms that serve it as food. The tentacles can be long or short, pointed filaments, but they all have stinging cages that stun prey and make hunting easier.
Life cycle of scyphoids: 1-11 - asexual generation (polyp); 11-14 - sexual generation (jellyfish).
Glowing jellyfish
The one who saw how it shines dark night sea water, he can hardly forget this sight: myriads of lights illuminate sea depth shimmer like diamonds. The reason for this amazing phenomenon the smallest planktonic organisms, including jellyfish, serve. One of the most beautiful is the phosphoric jellyfish. It is not found very often, inhabiting the bottom zone near the coasts of Japan, Brazil, Argentina.
The diameter of the umbrella of the luminous jellyfish can reach 15 centimeters. Living in the dark depths, jellyfish are forced to adapt to the conditions, provide themselves with food, so as not to disappear altogether as a species. An interesting fact is that the bodies of jellyfish do not have muscle fibers and cannot resist the flow of water.
Since the slow jellyfish swimming at the behest of the current cannot keep up with the moving crustaceans, small fish or other planktonic inhabitants, you have to go for a trick and force them to swim up themselves, directly to the predatory open mouth opening. And the best bait in the darkness of the bottom space is light.
The body of the glowing jellyfish contains a pigment - luciferin, which is oxidized under the influence of a special enzyme - luciferase. The bright light attracts victims like moths - the flame of a candle.
Some species glowing jellyfish such as Ratkea, Equorea, Pelagia live near the surface of the water, and, when collected in large quantities, they literally make the sea burn. Amazing ability emitting light interested scientists. Phosphors have been successfully isolated from the genome of jellyfish and introduced into the genomes of other animals. The results turned out to be quite unusual: for example, mice, whose genotype was changed in this way, began to grow overgrown with green hairs.
Poisonous Jellyfish - Sea Wasp
Nowadays, more than three thousand jellyfish are known, and many of them are far from harmless to humans. Stinging cells, "charged" with poison, have all types of jellyfish. They help to paralyze the victim and deal with it without any problems. Without exaggeration, for divers, swimmers, fishermen is the jellyfish, which is called the Sea Wasp. The main habitat of such jellyfish is warm tropical waters, especially near the shores of Australia and Oceania.
Transparent bodies of a light blue color are invisible in warm water quiet sandy bays. Small size, namely, up to forty centimeters in diameter, also does not attract special attention... Meanwhile, the poison of one individual is enough to send about fifty people to heaven. Unlike their phosphorescent cousins, sea wasps can change direction, easily finding careless bathers. The poison that has entered the victim's body causes paralysis of smooth muscles, including the respiratory tract. Being in shallow water, a person has a small chance of escape, but even if health care was provided in a timely manner and the person did not die from suffocation, deep ulcers are formed in the places of "bites", causing severe pain and non-healing for many days.
Dangerous Babies - Irukandji Jellyfish
The tiny jellyfish Irukandji, described by Australian Jack Barnes in 1964, have a similar effect on the human body, with the only difference that the degree of damage is not so deep. He, as a true scientist advocating for science, experienced the effect of the poison not only on himself, but also on his own son. Symptoms of poisoning - severe headache and muscle pain, cramps, nausea, drowsiness, loss of consciousness - are not fatal in themselves, but the main risk is a sharp increase blood pressure from a person who personally met Irukandji. If the victim has problems with cardiovascular system, then the probability of death is quite high. The size of this baby is about 4 centimeters in diameter, but thin spindle-shaped tentacles reach 30-35 centimeters in length.
Bright beauty - jellyfish Physalia
Another very dangerous inhabitant of tropical waters for humans is Physalia - Sea boat. Her umbrella is painted in bright colours: cyan, violet, magenta and floats on the surface of the water, therefore is visible from afar. Whole colonies of attractive sea "flowers" attract gullible tourists, beckoning to pick them up as soon as possible. This is where the main danger lurks: long, up to several meters, tentacles, equipped with a huge number of stinging cells, hide under the water. The poison acts very quickly, causing severe burns, paralysis and disturbances in the work of the cardiovascular, respiratory and central nervous systems. If the meeting took place on great depth or just far from the coast, then its outcome may be the saddest.
Giant Jellyfish Nomura - Lion's Mane
The real giant is the Bell Nomura, which is also called the Lion's Mane for some outward resemblance with the king of beasts. The diameter of the dome can reach two meters, and the weight of such a "baby" reaches two hundred kilos. Inhabits on Far East, in the coastal waters of Japan, off the coast of Korea and China.
A huge hairy ball, falling into fishing nets, damages them, causing damage to the fishermen and escaping them themselves when trying to free them. Even if their poison is not fatal to humans, meetings with the "Lion's Mane" rarely take place in a friendly atmosphere.
Cyanea is considered one of the largest jellyfish. Dwelling in cold waters, she reaches largest sizes... The most gigantic specimen was discovered and described by scientists at the end of the 19th century in North America: its dome was 230 centimeters in diameter, and the length of the tentacles was 36.5 meters. There are a lot of tentacles, they are collected in eight groups, each of which contains from 60 to 150 pieces. It is characteristic that the dome of the jellyfish is also divided into eight segments, representing a kind of octagonal star. Fortunately, it does not live in the Azov and Black seas, so you can not be afraid of them when going to the sea to relax.
Depending on the size, the color also changes: large specimens are painted in bright purple or purple the smaller ones are orange, pink or beige. Cyanei live in surface waters, rarely descending into the depths. The poison is not dangerous to humans, causing only an unpleasant burning sensation and blisters on the skin.
The use of jellyfish in cooking
The number of jellyfish living in the seas and oceans Globe truly enormous, and none of the species is in danger of extinction. Their use is limited by mining capabilities, but people have been using it for a long time. beneficial features jellyfish in medical purposes and enjoy them taste in cooking. In Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries, jellyfish have long been eaten, calling them "crystal meat". Its benefits are due to the high content of protein, albumin, vitamins and amino acids, trace elements. And with proper preparation, it tastes very exquisite.
Jellyfish "meat" is added to salads and desserts, sushi and rolls, soups and main courses. In a world where population growth is steadily threatening the onset of hunger, especially in underdeveloped countries, jellyfish protein can be a good help in solving this issue.
Jellyfish in medicine
The use of jellyfish for the manufacture of medicines is typical, to a greater extent, in those countries where their use in food has long ceased to be a subject of surprise. For the most part, these are coastal countries where jellyfish are directly harvested.
In medicine, preparations containing processed jellyfish bodies are used to treat infertility, obesity, baldness and gray hair. The poison extracted from stinging cells helps to cope with diseases of the ENT organs and to normalize blood pressure.
Modern scientists are struggling to find medicinal product able to win cancerous tumors, not excluding the possibility that jellyfish will also help in this difficult struggle.
Among the most unusual animals on Earth, jellyfish are also among the oldest, with an evolutionary history spanning hundreds of millions of years. In this article, we reveal for you 10 essential facts about jellyfish, from how these invertebrates move through the water column to how they sting their prey.
1. Jellyfish are classified as cnidarians.
Named after the Greek word for "sea nettle," cnidarians are marine animals characterized by a jelly-like body structure, radial symmetry, and "cnidocyte" stinging cells on their tentacles that literally explode when they capture prey. There are about 10,000 species of cnidarians, about half of which belong to the class coral polyps and the other half includes hydroids, scyphoids, and box jellyfish (a group of animals that most people call jellyfish).
Creepers are among the most ancient animals on earth; the roots of their fossils go back almost 600 million years ago!
2. There are four main classes of jellyfish
Scyphoid and Box Jellyfish are two classes of Creeping Jellyfish, including the classic jellyfish; the main difference between the two is that box jellyfish have a cuboid bell shape, and are slightly faster than scyphoid jellyfish. There are also hydroids (most species of which do not go through the polyp stage) and staurozoa - a class of jellyfish that lead a sedentary lifestyle, attaching to a hard surface.
All four classes of jellyfish: scyphoid, cubomedusa, hydroid and staurozoa belong to the subtype of cnidarians - medusozoa.
3. Jellyfish are one of the simplest animals in the world.
What can you say about animals without central nervous, cardiovascular and respiratory systems? Compared to animals, jellyfish are extremely simple organisms, characterized mainly by wavy bells (in which the stomach is located) and tentacles with many stinging cells. Their almost transparent bodies consist of only three layers of the outer epidermis, the middle mesogley, and the inner gastroderm and water account for 95-98% of the total, compared with 60% for the average person.
4. Jellyfish are formed from polyps
Like many animals, the life cycle of jellyfish begins with eggs, which are fertilized by males. After that, things get a little more complicated: what emerges from the egg is a free-floating planula (larva) that looks like a giant slipper ciliate. Then, the planula attaches to a hard surface (seabed or rocks) and develops into a polyp that resembles miniature corals or sea anemones. Finally, after several months or even years, the polyp detaches and develops into ether, which grows into an adult jellyfish.
5. Some jellyfish have eyes
Cobomedusas have a couple of dozen light-sensitive cells in the form of an eye spot, but unlike other marine ones, some of their eyes have a cornea, lenses and retina. These compound eyes are arranged in pairs around the circumference of the bell (one pointing up and the other down, providing a 360-degree view).
The eyes are used to find prey and protect against predators, but their main function is to correctly orient the jellyfish in the water column.
6. Jellyfish have a unique way of delivering poison
As a rule, they release their venom during a bite, but not jellyfish (and other coelenterates), which evolved into specialized organs called nematocysts. When the tentacles of jellyfish are stimulated, a huge internal pressure is created in the stinging cells (about 900 kg per square inch) and they literally explode, piercing the skin of the unfortunate victim to deliver thousands of tiny doses of poison. Nematocysts are so powerful that they can activate even when a jellyfish is washed ashore or dies.
7. Sea wasp is the most dangerous jellyfish
Most people are afraid poisonous spiders and rattlesnakes, but the most dangerous animal on the planet for humans may be a species of jellyfish - the sea wasp ( Chironex fleckeri). With a bell the size of a basketball and tentacles up to 3 m in length, the sea wasp prowls the waters off Australia and South-East Asia and at least 60 people lost their lives because of it in the last century.
A slight touch of the tentacles of the sea wasp causes excruciating pain, and closer contact with these jellyfish can kill an adult in a couple of minutes.
8. The movement of jellyfish resembles the work of a jet engine
Jellyfish are equipped with hydrostatic skeletons, invented by evolution hundreds of millions of years ago. Essentially, a jellyfish bell is a fluid-filled cavity surrounded by circular muscles that spray water in the opposite direction.
The hydrostatic skeleton is also found in starfish, worms and other invertebrates. Jellyfish can move with the ocean currents, thereby saving themselves from unnecessary efforts.
9. One type of jellyfish can be immortal
Like most invertebrates, jellyfish have a short lifespan: some small species live only hours, while the most large species for example, the lion's mane jellyfish can live for several years. It is controversial, but some scientists claim that the jellyfish species Turritopsis dornii immortal: adults are able to return to the polyp stage (see point 4), and thus an infinite life cycle is theoretically possible.
Unfortunately, this behavior has only been observed in laboratory conditions, and Turritopsis dornii can easily die in many other ways (for example, by becoming a dinner for predators or being thrown onto the beach).
10. A group of jellyfish is called a "swarm"
Remember the scene from the cartoon Finding Nemo, where Marlon and Dory must make their way through a huge cluster of jellyfish? Scientifically speaking, a group of jellyfish, consisting of hundreds or even thousands of individuals, is called a "swarm". Marine biologists have noticed that large concentrations of jellyfish are becoming more common, and may serve as indicators of sea pollution or global warming. Swarms of jellyfish tend to form in warm water, and jellyfish are also able to thrive in anoxic sea conditions that are not suitable for other invertebrates of this size.
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Jellyfish cannonball
Medusa cannonball lives along east coast USA to Brazil. It got its name because of unusual shape perfectly smooth and round like a cannonball. In Asian countries, these jellyfish are widely used in folk medicine... It is believed that they can heal lung disease, arthritis, and lower blood pressure.
Olindias formosa
This rare view jellyfish is found off the coast of Brazil, Argentina, Japan. Hanging at a shallow depth is characteristic of these jellyfish. When the jellyfish is in this state, its tentacles are concentrated under the cap. Due to its small number, this species does not pose a danger to people, but one should not forget that they can leave very severe burns.
Portuguese boat
it amazing creature differs from all jellyfish in that it consists of many jellyfish individuals. It has a gas bubble, floats on the surface of the water, which allows it to absorb air. Tentacles portuguese boat in an extended state, they can reach 50 meters.
Purple striped jellyfish
This type of jellyfish can be found in Monterrey Bay. They are not yet well understood. This jellyfish has quite big sizes and can cause severe burns to a person. Streaks and color saturation appear in jellyfish with age. Along the way warm currents jellyfish can also migrate to the shores of Southern California. This was especially noticeable in 2012, when 130 people received jellyfish burns (black sea nettle and purple striped).
Mediterranean or jellyfish fried egg
This amazing creature really resembles a fried egg, or poached egg. The jellyfish lives in the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas. Its important feature is that it can move independently without relying on waves.
Darth Vader or drug jellyfish
This type of jellyfish has been found in the Arctic. It happened quite recently. In addition to such an interesting and at the same time terrifying look, the jellyfish has 4 tentacles and 12 stomach sacs. During swimming, the tentacles are extended forward in order to better reach their prey.
Blue jellyfish
The blue jellyfish has very stinging tentacles. It has been found off the coast of Scotland, in the North Sea and in the Irish Sea. The average transverse diameter of this jellyfish is 15 centimeters. The color ranges from deep blue to bright blue.
Porpit porpit
It's not really a jellyfish. More commonly, this creature is known as the blue button. Porpit lives on the surface of the ocean, consists of two parts: a rigid golden-brown float and hydroid colonies, which in their appearance are very similar to the tentacles of a jellyfish. Porpita can be easily confused with jellyfish.
Almost every person at least once in his life has seen the most common inhabitant of the seas - jellyfish. This very beautiful animal, which lives mainly in tropical waters, can also be dangerous to humans. Jellyfish are actively poisonous creatures, their stinging apparatus is located on the tentacles. In tropical jellyfish, the tentacles can reach impressive lengths. Class scyphoid unites, as a rule, large jellyfish, which have a complex body structure in comparison with polyps.
Intestinal cavities are interesting in that they have an alternation during the development of generations, namely: if an adult organism leads a sedentary lifestyle, for example, hydroids, then its larval generation will lead a free-floating lifestyle, sometimes taking the form of tiny jellyfish, or the so-called hydromedusa. But real scypho jellyfish in an adult state lead a free-swimming lifestyle, and the intermediate (or larval) generation, on the contrary, will be a polyp attached to the bottom. Intestinal animals, including jellyfish, are two-layer animals. They have developed only two layers: the outer one - the ectoderm and the inner one - the endoderm, but they do not have the middle layer - the mesoderm. Instead, between the layers of hydroids there is a thin, so-called support plate, and in jellyfish - a loose thick layer of tissue - glia, which is 98% water. It is she who gives the jellyfish a jelly-like swaying look. Thrown ashore, the jellyfish quickly loses water, turning into something that looks like a rag of indefinite shape.
Among the jellyfish that pose a real danger to humans, the following can be named: cyanea, deep-sea jellyfish, cornerots, aurelia, dactylometers, cross... Most dangerous fingerprints and so called sea wasps.
Scyphoid
Symptoms that occur when touching scyphomedusa are the same as when the poison is directed to the vital systems of the body - nervous system, heart. Upset stomach begins, caused by poisoning with many animal poisons, and it is not at all necessary that they get into gastrointestinal tract, as, for example, in case of poisoning with defective mushrooms.
Cyanei - large jellyfish living in all waters from the polar latitudes to the tropics. The diameter of the bell of such a jellyfish reaches 2.5 m, and the length of the tentacles is 30 m. Imagine a meeting with such a jellyfish. If you do not notice and do not bypass it, then in short period In time, a person must dive to a depth of 30 m, which is practically impossible. This jellyfish has wide mouth lobes, which can have a very varied color. Representatives of this species can be found in northern regions The Pacific and Atlantic oceans and even the Baltic Sea.
Not only large, but also small species of jellyfish are dangerous to humans. At great depths, divers may encounter other types of jellyfish that prefer shallow water, but sometimes they are also found in the surface layers of water. This has happened more than once in the tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Very often, falling into the nets of fishermen, jellyfish caused severe poisoning in people who tried to pull such a jellyfish out of the nets.
Some types of jellyfish with the help of special devices can be attached to various underwater objects and even to animals. But one of the representatives of the cornerot jellyfish, the so-called rhizostoma, is found in our seas - the Black and Azov seas. This whitish jellyfish has a bright blue or purple border around the edge of the bell. The diameter of its bell reaches 60 cm. It does not have tentacles along the edge of the bell, and even the mouth lobes located under the bell grow together with their lateral sides, the ends of which end in tapered outgrowths, which is why the jellyfish is called cornerot. In the water, it moves with strong jolts, easily changing the direction of movement.
Some cornerotes are capable of causing not only severe damage to a person, but also dysfunctions. internal organs... The dactylometer jellyfish has an umbrella with a diameter of only about 25 cm, but has big amount tentacles. The four very long oral lobes almost reach the length of the marginal tentacles and are narrowed towards the ends. The body color of dactylometers can vary from yellow to lilac with a brown tint. Such jellyfish are widespread in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These animals are dangerous to humans. Faced with such a jellyfish, he feels severe itching of the skin, turning into a burning sensation. A local inflammatory reaction of the skin occurs. Symptoms of general poisoning are not very pronounced, but a person who has received an unexpected burn may not cope with stress and drown. Such cases are known.
Box jellyfish
Jellyfish that pose a danger to humans include the so-called box jellyfish... They got this name for the special shape of the bell, reminiscent of a slightly rounded cube. The tentacles of these jellyfish, in contrast to the scyphoid jellyfish, are outgrowths located at the four corners of the cube and at the bottom are divided into smaller branches. The outgrowths of the tentacles vaguely resemble hands with smaller ends - fingers. When the tentacles hit the box jellyfish, necrotic foci can also appear. A necrotic focus occurs due to the death of skin cells. This phenomenon has the appearance of a festering ulcer, where the leukocytes of the blood rush.
Among the box jellyfish for humans, the most dangerous are the sea wasp and the chiropsalmus. These are small jellyfish, their bell reaches about 20 cm in diameter. In addition, the transparency of the body in the water makes them unobtrusive to swimmers. They live in the tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans... They are especially common off the coast of Northern Australia and the Philippines.
Sea wasp - venomous species from class box jellyfish
The sea wasp can be found off the coast of Australia and the Philippines. The diameter of its bell is very small, about 7.5 cm. The sea wasp belongs to the box jellyfish. The burn of this jellyfish is fatal even for an adult who dies within a few minutes.
Let's expose! The most big jellyfish in the world? March 15th, 2015
You have probably often seen this photo on the Internet with the caption THE BIGGEST MEDUSA IN THE WORLD. Moreover, almost everywhere they write that this is arctic cyanea, also known as cyanea hairy or lion's mane (lat.Cyanea capillata, Cyanea arctica). The length of the tentacles of these jellyfish can reach 37 meters.
But surely many of you had doubts if the jellyfish is really that huge!
Understanding ...
In general, the title photo from the series is something like this:
or for example this one:
So what's really in the photo? You might be surprised, but the photo shows a real arctic cyanea. And she really is the largest jellyfish in the world. True, the diameter of the dome reaches a maximum of 2 meters and it looks something like this:
The largest jellyfish reached 36.5 meters, and the diameter of the "cap" was 2.3 meters.
There is a difference, isn't there? Let's find out a little more about this jellyfish.
Photo 1. 
Cyanos is translated from Latin as blue, and capillus - hair or capillary, i.e. literally a blue-haired jellyfish. This is a representative of the scyphoid jellyfish of the discomedusa order. Cyanea comes in several forms. Their number is a matter of dispute between scientists, however, at present, two more varieties of it are distinguished - blue (or blue) cyanea (suapea lamarckii) and Japanese cyanea (suapea capillata nozakii). These relatives of the giant " lion's mane»Are significantly inferior to her in size.
Photo 2. 
Cyanea giant is an inhabitant of cold and moderately cold waters. It is also found off the coast of Australia, but it is most numerous in northern seas Atlantic and The Pacific as well as in open waters seas of the Arctic. It is here in northern latitudes, it reaches record sizes. V warm seas cyanide does not take root, and if it penetrates into softer climatic zones, it does not grow more than half a meter in diameter.
In 1865, the sea threw a huge jellyfish on the coast of Massachusetts Bay (North Atlantic coast of the USA), the diameter of the dome of which was 2.29 meters, and the length of the tentacles reached 37 meters. This is the largest of the cyanea giant specimens, the measurement of which has been documented.
Photo 3. 
The body of cyanea has a varied color, with a predominance of red and brown tones. In adult specimens top part the dome is yellowish, and its edges are red. The mouth lobes are crimson-red, the marginal tentacles are light, pink and purple. Juveniles are much brighter.
Cyanians have many extremely sticky tentacles. They are all grouped into 8 groups. Each group contains 65-150 tentacles inside, arranged in a row. The dome of the jellyfish is also divided into 8 parts, giving it the appearance of an eight-pointed star.
Photo 4. 
The jellyfish Cyanea capillata is both male and female. During fertilization, male cyaneans eject mature spermatozoa through their mouths into the water, from where they enter the brood chambers located in the oral lobes of the females, where eggs are fertilized and developed. Then the planula larvae leave the brood chambers and swim in the water column for several days. Having attached to the substrate, the larva transforms into a single polyp - scyphistoma, which actively feeds, increases in size and can reproduce asexually, budding off daughter scyphists from itself. In the spring, the process of transverse division of the scyphistoma begins - strobilation and the larvae of the ether jellyfish are formed. They look like transparent stars with eight rays, they do not have marginal tentacles and mouth lobes. Ethers break away from the scyphistoma and float away, and by the middle of summer they gradually turn into jellyfish.
Photo 5. 
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Most of the time, cyanea hover in the near-surface layer of water, periodically contracting the dome and flapping their marginal blades. At the same time, the tentacles of the jellyfish are straightened and extended to their full length, forming a dense trapping net... Cyanea are predators. Long, numerous tentacles are densely covered with stinging cells. When they are shot, a strong poison penetrates the victim's body, killing small animals and causing significant damage to larger ones. Cyanogen prey - various planktonic organisms, including other jellyfish, sometimes small fish, which adhere to the tentacles, are caught.
Arctic cyanea, although it is poisonous to humans, but its poison does not have such a force to lead to death, although there is one case of death from the poison of this jellyfish in the world. He can call allergic reaction and the appearance of a rash on the skin. And in the place where the tentacles of the jellyfish touch the skin, a person can get a burn and, subsequently, redness of the skin, which eventually disappears.
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