Arctic cyanide is the largest jellyfish. Giant jellyfish cyanide: description, lifestyle, interesting facts

The largest jellyfish in the entire world's oceans, the Arctic cyanide (lat. Cyanea capillata) became widely known thanks to the story "The Lion's Mane" by Arthur Conan Doyle, which told about the painful death of one of the heroes caused by a meeting with the Arctic cyanide.

In fact, rumors about its mortal danger to humans are too exaggerated. Arctic cyanide not only cannot cause death, but is not even able to cause any serious damage to human health. The worst effects of contact with this jellyfish are an itchy rash and, in some cases, an allergic reaction. All this is successfully treated with compresses with vinegar.

However, arctic cyanideas are very interesting sea creatures. Let's start with the fact that cyanides live in extremely harsh climatic conditions. They can be found in the waters of the Arctic Ocean and in the northern regions of the Pacific Ocean during the coldest winter months. They rarely fall below forty-second degrees north latitude and are completely absent from the waters of the southern hemisphere.

Arctic cyanide can reach truly enormous sizes. These are not only the largest of all jellyfish, but also the largest animals in the world. The diameter of one of the jellyfish, found in 1870 off the coast of Massachusetts, exceeded two meters, and the length of the tentacles reached thirty-six meters. It is believed that the cyanide bell can grow up to two and a half meters in diameter, and the tentacles up to forty-five meters in length. This far exceeds the size of the blue whale, the largest animal on the planet.

The further north the Arctic cyanide lives, the larger it is. The most impressive sizes are jellyfish living in the coldest regions of the Arctic Ocean. As you approach warmer waters, the size of the Arctic cyanide decreases: the smallest jellyfish are found between the fortieth and forty-second degrees of northern latitude.

Usually the diameter of the bell of the Arctic cyanide does not exceed two and a half meters. The length of the tentacles of these arctic jellyfish also varies depending on the temperature of their habitat, and the color depends on the size. The largest specimens impress with rich raspberry-red tones, while the smaller specimens are characterized by pink, orange or light brown hues.

The body of the arctic cyanide is a bell with blades along the edges, shaped like a hemisphere. Long tentacles are attached to the inside of the blades, collected in eight bundles. Each such bundle grows from sixty to one hundred and thirty tentacles. In the center of the bell there is a mouth opening surrounded by long oral lobes, with the help of which the Arctic cyanide moves the caught prey towards the mouth connected to the stomach.

Like most jellyfish, the Arctic cyanide is a voracious predator that feeds on zooplankton, small fish and ctenophores. She does not deny herself the pleasure of feasting on her relatives, such as, for example, eared Aurelia. In turn, arctic cyanideas are desirable prey for seabirds, large fish, sea turtles and other jellyfish.

Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758)

arctic cyanoea(lat. Cyanea capillata, Cyanea arctica ) - a species of scyphoid from the detachment of disc jellyfish ( Semaeostomeae). At the medusa stage, they reach large sizes. Distributed in all northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, found in surface water near the coast. Not found in the Black and Azov Seas.

body structure

The body of the cyanide has a varied color, with a predominance of red and brown tones. In adult specimens, the upper part of the dome is yellowish, and its edges are red. The mouth lobes are crimson red, the marginal tentacles are light, pink and purple. Young individuals are colored much brighter.

The cyanide bell has a hemispherical shape, its edges are transformed into 16 blades, separated from each other by cutouts. At the base of the cutouts are ropalia - the so-called marginal bodies, which contain the organs of vision (eyes) and balance (statocysts). The long marginal tentacles are collected in 8 bundles and are attached to the inner concave side of the dome under the lobes between the ropalia. In the center of the lower part of the dome there is a mouth opening, surrounded by large, folded oral lobes hanging down in the form of curtains. The radial channels of the digestive system, extending from the stomach, enter the marginal and oral lobes of the bell, where they form branches.

Arctic cyanide is the largest jellyfish in the world's oceans. There are specimens with a dome diameter reaching 2 m. The tentacles of such large specimens can stretch up to 20 m. Usually cyanideas do not grow more than 50-60 cm.

Life cycle

Cyanea has a change of generations in its life cycle - sexual (medusoid), living in the water column, and asexual (polypoid), leading an attached bottom lifestyle.

Life cycle Cyanea capillata similar to the cycle Males eject mature spermatozoa through the mouth into the water, from where they penetrate into the brood chambers located in the females' oral lobes, where the eggs are fertilized and developed. Planula larvae leave the brood chambers and swim in the water column for several days. Attached to the substrate, the larva transforms into a single polyp - a scyphist, 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 jellyfish ethers are formed. They look like transparent stars with eight rays, they do not have marginal tentacles and mouth lobes. The ethers break away from the scyphistoma and swim away, and by the middle of summer they gradually turn into jellyfish.

Lifestyle

Most of the time, cyanideas hover in the near-surface layer of water, periodically shortening the dome and flapping their edge blades. At the same time, the tentacles of the jellyfish are straightened and extended to their full length, forming a dense trapping net under the dome. Cyanees are predators. The long, numerous tentacles are densely seeded with stinging cells. When they are fired, a strong poison penetrates the victim's body, killing small animals and causing significant damage to larger ones. Cyanide prey - various planktonic organisms, including other jellyfish.

Human danger

Arctic cyanide is actually not as dangerous as popular culture depicts. The sting of this jellyfish is simply unable to lead to the death of a person. Although the rash can be painful for sensitive people, and the toxins in the venom can cause an allergic reaction.

Notes

Literature

• Illustrated atlas of invertebrates of the White Sea. Moscow: Association of Scientific Publications KMK. 2006.
• Mentioned in Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Lion's Mane" (vol. 3)

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Cyanea" is in other dictionaries:

Exist., number of synonyms: 4 bacteria (83) algae (89) jellyfish (25) ... Synonym dictionary

- (Cyanea capillata) a large sea jellyfish from the scyphoid class (See Scyphoid). The edges of the umbrella with eight double blades, the tentacles are collected in 8 bundles. The color of the body is usually very bright, the umbrella is yellowish red, the mouth lobes are crimson ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (Cyanea) a genus of the family Cianeidae, belonging to the suborder Discomedusae of the order scyphomedusa (see) or acalef of the intestinal type. The gelatinous body of this jellyfish has the shape of a cap, and its characteristic feature is extremely wide, ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Greek heroes turned to stone under the gaze of the mythical witch Medusa Gorgon. Will the real and at the same time the world's largest jellyfish, the Arctic cyanide, make you freeze from shock? This floating nightmare has a 2m diameter bell and extends its tentacles up to 30m! Learn the truth about giant jellyfish, their size and lifestyle, and the chances of encountering them in the wild.

First place: Arctic cyanide - the longest animal on the planet

The owner of the longest body prefers the cold waters of the White, Kara and Barents Seas, although he often descends to the latitudes of Boston and northern Portugal. In 1870, the inhabitants of one of the villages on the shores of Massachusetts Bay went out to collect fish left on the sand after a storm, and found a gigantic jellyfish thrown out by the sea.

Animal measurements showed:

• 7.5 feet (2.3 m) - span of the bell;
• 120 feet (36.6 m) - the length of the tentacles;
• 121.4 feet (37 m) - full length from crown to tip of tentacles.

Even the blue whale falls short of the cyanide record of 3.5m!

What does a giant jellyfish look like and what does it eat?

The dome of cyanide, flickering with a greenish light, is painted burgundy closer to the edges and is divided into 16 lobes. Numerous tentacles of the animal stretch behind the dome in a sloppy pink train. Thanks to them, the jellyfish received a second name - hairy.

For a person, a meeting with an Arctic giant is fraught with painful burns. The National Geographic Society of the United States considers cyanide to be potentially deadly, although the case of death from its poison was recorded only once.

Runner-up: Nomura's bell, a yellow giant from the Yellow Sea

Kanihi Nomura, a zoologist and at the same time director of fisheries in the Japanese prefecture of Fukui, puzzled by the clogging of nets by jellyfish, found and described this species in 1921. The animal resembles a clump of tangled fibers from the central part of a pumpkin fruit, hanging from a two-meter bell. The second name of the giant is the lion's mane.

Nomura's tentacles are small, but the mass of one specimen reaches 200 kg. In 2009, a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Japan, the crew of which struggled with nomura that filled the net. The efforts of fishermen to throw the lion's mane out of the nets end sadly: numerous tentacles always find a small strip of open skin, even on a person dressed in a sea robe.

What burns the bell Nomura and his brothers

Jellyfish are slow and clumsy, it is difficult for them to keep the caught prey. So you have to act with a paralyzing poison, grow stinging cells with a coiled harpoon thread inside. When a crustacean or fish touches a tiny protrusion near such a cage, the thread instantly shoots, sticks in the side and injects poison.

Jellyfish toxins are little studied, but it has been established that one of their components is histamine, which is responsible for a sharp allergic reaction. Other substances in the composition of the poison affect the nervous system, paralyzing planktonic trifles and causing severe pain in marine mammals and humans.

Third place: chrysaora - a tender and burning beauty

Chrysaora chose the eastern and western shelves of the North American continent. Its dome reaches a meter in diameter, painted in sandy color with dark radial stripes. 24 thin stinging tentacles up to 5 m long hang from the edges of the dome. Around the mouth, located on the underside of the dome, 4 more tentacles grow, lush, like a feather boa. All together it resembles a ladies' hat with ribbons.

The second name of the underwater beauty is sea nettle. Like the plant of the same name, chrysaora burns sharply, painfully, but not for long. After an hour, the burning and itching stop, and the next day, redness also disappears.

How chrysaors migrate

There is an opinion that jellyfish only go with the flow. However, they easily move where they want, taking water under the dome and throwing it out with strong shocks. This mode of movement is called reactive.

Chrysaors make multi-day sea voyages in search of prey: crested jellyfish and plankton. Sometimes they gather in clusters of tens of thousands of individuals - zoologists call this phenomenon "swarm" or "bloom". Why the Chrysaors behave this way remains to be explored.

Fourth place: purple striped jellyfish

This rare creature lives off the coast of California. The diameter of its bell reaches 70 cm, the length of thin marginal tentacles is 2 m. In its youth, the jellyfish is colorless, it is decorated with barely visible dark stripes and edging along the edge of the dome. With age, the stripes become bright brown, and the jellyfish itself acquires a rich blueberry color.

The stings inflicted by the purple striped jellyfish are not fatal, but unpleasant, like a lash. In 2012, 130 vacationers on a Monterey Bay beach were injured after encountering a large group of young, and therefore hard to see, animals in the water.

Why is the body of a jellyfish transparent?

The jellyfish does not have a single internal organ. Their flesh is two rows of cells, between them is laid a thick layer of gelatinous substance, which is 98% water. The jellyfish seems to be made of liquid glass.

Cells share all the work of the body. Some produce toxins, others digest prey, others are responsible for sensitivity. There are cells whose duties include the prompt restoration of parts of the body bitten off by turtles and other predators. But since there are only two layers of cells, the general outlines of objects can be seen through the jellyfish.

Fifth place: Black Sea cornerot

For the Mediterranean and Black Seas, this is the largest representative of jellyfish. The diameter of the bell reaches 60 cm, weight - 10 kg. Cornerot does not have long trapping tentacles characteristic of chrysaora or cyanide. There are small oral lobes resembling young roots of well-fed seedlings.

Cornerots are hardly noticeable, because on their transparent colorless body there is only one colored area - the purple edging of the dome. Bathers discover the jellyfish when they touch the floating jelly. For most people, this animal is safe, and only severe allergic people react to its soft touch with a scattering of urticaria.

Can a jellyfish feel

Sight, hearing, taste - this is not about jellyfish. The nervous system is too primitive. However, sailors have long noticed that before a storm, cornerots disappear, go away from the coast.

It turned out that along the edges of the dome, the animals carry tubes with lime crystals. In response to infrasounds that appear in the sea 10-15 hours before the storm, the crystals begin to move and touch microscopic sensitive tubercles.

This signal is received by nerve cells. Now the sailors are armed with the "jellyfish ear" device, which notifies in advance of the approach of bad weather.

The world's largest jellyfish cyanide and its smaller sisters are one of the most beautiful inhabitants of the ocean. Slowly and mysteriously they dance in the thickness of salty water for hundreds of millions of years. During this time, they acquired delicate colors, burning poisons and the finest hearing. But zoologists are sure that far from all the secrets of transparent beauties have been revealed.

arctic cyanoea is the largest jellyfish in the world. It is also called cyanide hairy and lion's mane. The length of the tentacles of the Arctic cyanide reaches 37 meters, which makes it the longest animal on the planet. At the same time, the diameter of the dome of such a "jellyfish" is 2.5 meters, and the bright colors of the body make it the undeniable queen of the deep sea.

If you pay attention to the Latin name of the Arctic cyanide, then the first word - Cyanos - means "blue", and the second - capillus - hair or a thin process, that is, the Latin name means that in front of you is a "blue-haired" jellyfish. It is also interesting that, according to the biological "price list", the Arctic cyanide belongs to the scyphoid jellyfish of the disc jellyfish order.

Nevertheless, there are several types of cyanide in the world. Although their exact number has not yet been determined, at present they distinguish not only the Arctic cyanide, but also the blue cyanide (suapea lamarckii), as well as the Japanese cyanide (suapea capillata nozakii), which are significantly inferior in size to the giant "lion's mane" .

According to experts, the diameter of the Atlantic cyanide reaches 2.5 meters. And if we compare this type of cyanide with a blue whale, which is often cited as an example when determining the longest animal, then the blue whale can reach a length of 30 meters (with a weight of 180 tons), and the Arctic cyanide grows up to 37 meters, which allows it to be the longest animal on our planet.

Arctic cyanide lives in cold and moderately cold waters. It can be found off the coast of Australia, but most of all it prefers the northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In addition, she also feels great in the open waters of the Arctic seas. The proof of this is that in the northern latitudes it reaches its most record sizes. But in the warm seas, the Arctic cyanide does not take root, and if it sneaks into milder climatic zones, it grows no more than 1.5 meters in diameter.

There is a known case when, in 1865, a huge arctic cyanide was thrown onto the coast of Massachusetts Bay, on the North Atlantic coast of the United States, which, with all its tentacles, was 37 meters long, and its dome diameter was 2.29 meters. This is the largest jellyfish, the size of which is documented.

The body of the arctic cyanide is distinguished by a variety of colors, in which red and brown tones predominate. Adults are usually colored like this: the upper part of the dome is yellowish, and its edges are pink-red. At the same time, it looks very beautiful that the oral lobes against this background have a crimson-red color, and the marginal tentacles are decorated from pink to purple. In addition, it is believed that young cyanide have a brighter color.

Arctic cyanideas have many very sticky tentacles, which are grouped in eight groups of 65 to 150 tentacles arranged in a row. The dome of such a beauty is also divided into eight parts, which gives the jellyfish the appearance of an eight-pointed star.

And since Arctic cyanideans can be both female and male, the process of having children in them is very interesting. So, during fertilization, the males, as it were, “kiss” the females at a distance, that is, they throw sperm from their mouths into the water, which fall into the oral lobes of the females, where there are special brood chambers in which fertilization and development of eggs take place.

Over time, planula larvae emerge from the brood chambers and swim in the water for several days. Then each of them attaches to the substrate and transforms into a single polyp, which, in turn, also begins to actively feed and increase in size. Uniquely, it can reproduce asexually by budding other scyphists from itself.

With the onset of the warm season, the mechanism of transverse division of the scyphistoma is launched, which leads to the formation of a jellyfish larva. At that time, small "jellyfish" look like transparent glass stars with eight rays. So far, they do not yet have either marginal tentacles or oral lobes. Such stars swim in the water, and by the middle of summer they gradually become more and more like real jellyfish.

The main occupation of Arctic cyanides is unhurried soaring in the surface layer of water, where they periodically shorten their canopy and make spectacular strokes with their edge blades. At the same time, the tentacles of the jellyfish are extended to their full length and form a dense practical trapping net.

All cyanides are predators. With the help of their long and numerous tentacles, they catch prey, and strong poison helps them, which almost immediately kills small animals and causes significant harm to larger individuals. This poison is located in the stinging cells, which are densely seated on the tentacles of the jellyfish. Such poison shoots into the body of the victims, which the arctic cyanide then absorbs.

The prey of huge jellyfish is various plankton, including smaller jellyfish and small fish. For humans, Arctic cyanide is also dangerous, although its poison is not considered fatal to humans. However, cases of death of people from such a jellyfish are still recorded. But most often, death occurs from a severe allergic reaction. In other cases, at the place of contact, a person has a slight reddening or burn, which disappear with time.

The marine environment is fundamentally different from ours. This world is fraught with many creatures that go beyond the ideas of ordinary things. Take, for example, a jellyfish ... This oldest species has existed on the planet for more than 600 million years, and some specimens have learned to grow to incredible sizes.

hairy cyanoea

The largest jellyfish in the world is the hairy cyanide. It occurs throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but the largest specimens are found in the Arctic. The reason for this is the lack of food in cold water, which leads to late puberty and, accordingly, gigantism of the individual.

Many people have seen this photo on the Internet. It certainly depicts cyanidea, only the ratio of man to jellyfish here is corrected by Photoshop. The largest jellyfish in the world washed ashore in Massachusetts Bay in 1870. Its length was 36.5 meters, and the diameter of the bell was 2.3 meters.

In this regard, the cyanide also rightfully bears the title of “the longest jellyfish in the world” and is considered the longest animal on the planet, since its main competitor, the blue whale, reaches only 33 meters.

What else is it called

Its other names are arctic cyanide or lion's mane. This discomedusa (octagonal shape), opaque. Translated from Latin, its name means "blue hairy jellyfish", although in adulthood it is more colorful - brown, red and yellowish tones predominate in it. But the young cyanide is usually orange.

Common specimens are about 2 meters in diameter and about 20 tentacles long. The body of a jellyfish is an inverted bell with blades. Tentacles come out of its inner part, of which the cyanide has a lot - at each corner of the dome there are up to 150 pieces in a row, which do not retract inside, but are always ready to bite into the victim. In the center is the mouth, which is also the excretory opening. And jellyfish move in a jet way.

habitats

Cyanea lives in surface waters at depths of up to 20 meters. This is a predator using its tentacles as a trapping net, where a rather strong poison awaits the victim at the ends of the stinging cells. For small fish, it is fatal, for larger animals it leaves great damage.

In humans, the largest jellyfish in the world's oceans can cause allergies, burns, but not death. The story "The Lion's Mane" by Conan Doyle, where two people die when they come into contact with it, is a fiction.

And besides, a rare diver will swim in the Arctic without a wetsuit that protects from the cold. It is interesting that, falling into more southern latitudes, cyanide will never grow more than half a meter. When meeting with her in warm waters without protective equipment, it is enough for a person to wipe the place of contact with vinegar.

The life cycle of this jellyfish is quite peculiar. It consists of polypoid (attached to the bottom) and actually medusoid types.

Jellyfish breeding

Males spit mature spermatozoa into the sea through their mouths, where they enter the females in the oral lobes. After a few days, the larva degenerates into a polyp, which will first be fixed on stones or plants. It will grow, feed, and may even reproduce by budding (asexually). And in the spring, the transformation ends with the larva of the jellyfish, which sets off for free swimming as a small octagonal star.

Jellyfish hunt in groups - it is more convenient for them to surround plankton or a flock of fish. Among this species of jellyfish, cannibalism is common - on occasion, a large jellyfish can swallow a smaller relative. The natural enemies of cyanides - turtles, birds and large fish will never miss such a tasty morsel of prey.

You can learn more about jellyfish from the video below the article. Be sure to check out this majestic beauty…