Hello fellow jelly lover!! Autism be encouraged, I would love nothing more than to hear your hyper-fixation rant on jellyfish!! Kicking my feet and twirling my landline cord B*)
Hi hello did you know that jellyfish have no brain? They are simply all nervous system and move around by electrical propulsion. Literally just vibing, no thoughts head empty.
The study of jellyfish is called medusology because jellyfish are actually only a stage in their life! They start out as larva with essentially a dot of glue on their heads and lil tentacle feet (called cilia) which they use to feed with (their mouth and their anus are the same thing lmao). They float around until they find a good solid surface to glue their head to and become a polyp (related to sea anemone and coral)! While a polyp, they feed with their feet and generally just chill for years.
Polyps produce asexually, where they strobilate (aka split apart like mitosis), and sexually, which is where jellyfish comes in!! The polyp splits apart into medusa (jellyfish) which is essentially the polyp’s gonads/sexual reproductive organs! Jellyfish are just floating uteruses/testicles!!!
No one is sure how long they stay in the medusa stage, but most jellyfish are either male or female and will spawn aka release eggs/sperm pretty regularly if they’re eating enough. Jellyfish eat passively as they swim, which is arguably the most energy-efficient swimming method in animals ever. Spawning is controlled by light (?!!) and they all spawn at the same time of day (again, no brains!! Only vibes).
The polyp who produced asexually (created the medusas) can live for many years, producing medusas each year. Jellyfish? Can live for an unknown amount of time. One species, Turritopsis dohrnii, is essentially immortal because it can transform from the medusa stage into a polyp again, essentially never dying.
Anyways. Jellyfish are so fucking cool!! Nature is crazy! I love the ocean and all it’s alien life!!!
