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Immortal Jellyfish

Stellify

Stellify

StarChild
My friend said something about the immortal jellyfish, so I decided to look into it. The few articles I've found online seem kind of vague, and I can't tell if the jellyfish reverts back to its own polyp state and then ages again, or if it turns into a polyp colony (ie: does it turn into one polyp or many before aging again?)

Whatever the case, I'm sure geneticists and beauty companies everywhere are going crazy with this.

"Immortal" Jellyfish Swarm World's Oceans

The Curious Case of the Immortal Jellyfish | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

Either way, it would seem they're taking over the world's oceans.

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image.jpg


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Polyp Stage:

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zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend Stellify,

nice pics there.
Have heard that if human skin comes in contact with these jelly fishes they leave a bad sting? is it correct? if so what does one have to do as first aid?

Also would love to know the answers to your queries.

Love & rgds
 
Stellify

Stellify

StarChild
zenzero said:
Friend Stellify,

nice pics there.
Have heard that if human skin comes in contact with these jelly fishes they leave a bad sting? is it correct? if so what does one have to do as first aid?

Also would love to know the answers to your queries.

Love & rgds
Click to expand...
Hello zenzero :D

I haven't read anything about the effect their sting had on humans. I'm still trying to find different articles on these jellyfish. Most of the things I find concentrate on their "age-reversal" aspect.
I will let you know if I find anything significant :)




Does anyone think we will be able to mimic their behavior?
SHOULD we?
 
Evee

Evee

Member
Jellies: just about the coolest thing in the sea.
Yup, they're basal animals, and they're part of the phylum Cnidarians because they have cnidae, little nettle-like organelles. They're the part that sting humans, ZenZero. Sometimes they're like long strings and sometimes they're more like needles.
I haven't found anything in my biology class that suggests that jellies are immortal, though they do have both polyp and medusa stages. Typically, I think, the jelly dies after it reproduces sexually in the medusa stage. However, the polyp stage does reporduce asexually and can live for a very long time (possibly forever) if not taken out of the water. So, in a sense, the same set of genes can live forever, producing new medusa stages asexually from the same polyp colony forever. But, once a jelly becomes a medusa, I'm pretty sure it has a fixed lifespan. Sorry to disappoint. :(
There's no way we could live like that either. Jellyfish are so basic...they don't have brains or bones. They move by opening and closing their mouths. They don't even have real muslces, just special cells that fill with water to contract. Also, humans can't reproduce asexually. We have haploid gametes that need to fuse with haploid gametes of the other sex to produce offspring. Too bad, though...lol.
 
Stellify

Stellify

StarChild
Evee said:
I haven't found anything in my biology class that suggests that jellies are immortal, though they do have both polyp and medusa stages. Typically, I think, the jelly dies after it reproduces sexually in the medusa stage. However, the polyp stage does reporduce asexually and can live for a very long time (possibly forever) if not taken out of the water. So, in a sense, the same set of genes can live forever, producing new medusa stages asexually from the same polyp colony forever. But, once a jelly becomes a medusa, I'm pretty sure it has a fixed lifespan. Sorry to disappoint. :(
There's no way we could live like that either. Jellyfish are so basic...they don't have brains or bones. They move by opening and closing their mouths. They don't even have real muslces, just special cells that fill with water to contract. Also, humans can't reproduce asexually. We have haploid gametes that need to fuse with haploid gametes of the other sex to produce offspring. Too bad, though...lol.
Click to expand...
If you would go and read the articles I linked to in the OP (they're not very long), you would see that I wasn't talking about all jellyfish, but one specific kind. Also, if you had read the articles, the reason the idea of the jellyfish being immortal was brought up is this:
Once it reaches sexual maturity, Turritopsis looks like a tiny, transparent, many-tentacled parachute (only about 5mm in diameter) that floats freely in warm ocean waters. But when times get tough, Turritopsis can turn into a blob, anchor itself to a surface, and undergo a sort of reverse methamorphosis back to its youthful form as a stalk-like polyp. That’s like a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar. Scientists, who first described this phenomenon [pdf] in the 1990s, believe Turritopsis can repeat its life cycle indefinitely.
Click to expand...

As you can see, it's a bit of a special case. :)

Their transdifferentiation has a big potential for humans because if we could find out the mechanics of it, we could possibly figure out how to apply those processes to ourselves.
 
sarahjane127

sarahjane127

Scientific Mind
zenzero said:
Friend Stellify,

nice pics there.
Have heard that if human skin comes in contact with these jelly fishes they leave a bad sting? is it correct? if so what does one have to do as first aid?

Also would love to know the answers to your queries.

Love & rgds
Click to expand...


True if you do come into contact you will be stung. I have heard it is extreme pain and i saw on the discovery channel one of the best things you can do right away is either you or someone urinate on it because it greatly reduces the pain.
 
Stellify

Stellify

StarChild
zenzero said:
Friend Stellify,

nice pics there.
Have heard that if human skin comes in contact with these jelly fishes they leave a bad sting? is it correct? if so what does one have to do as first aid?

Also would love to know the answers to your queries.

Love & rgds
Click to expand...

sarahjane127 said:
True if you do come into contact you will be stung. I have heard it is extreme pain and i saw on the discovery channel one of the best things you can do right away is either you or someone urinate on it because it greatly reduces the pain.
Click to expand...
Sarah: Are you talking about being stung by these jellyfish in particular?
I still haven't seen anything regarding their sting, and I know there are some kinds of jellyfish out there that don't really have an effect on humans.

I've been stung numerous times by other types of jellies, though....It hurt, but it wasn't excruciating. Although the level of pain you experience depends on what kind of jelly you come into contact with.

Urinating on a sting is a common practice because, as far as my understanding goes, the ammonia in urine helps neutralize the poison.
So, a lot of people who go into waters where jellyfish are common take bottles of Windex with them and use that to spray down anyone who gets stung. It's a little less awkward than getting peed on :p
 
Tiapan

Tiapan

Grumpy Old Man
Oztralia has no big mean predators like lions tigers or bears. We do have crocks. But what we lack in teeth we make up for in venom, we have the worlds deadliest spider nine out of ten deadliest snakes and the 2 most deadly jellyfish.

The sting of a box jelly fish, Chironex flecker is unbelievably painful and leaves scars that can last for life like third degree burns, and is often agonizingly lethal. However most jelly fish are innocuous and beautiful.
 
Falvlun

Falvlun

Earthbending Lemur
Premium Member
The Nat Geo article made me wonder. It states that the jellyfish turns back into the blob, which then becomes a polyp colony. The polyp colony, while it is the "younger" state of the jellyfish, essentially is the jellyfish's method of asexual reproduction. As the article states, hundreds of genetically identical jellyfish are then spawned. But what of the original individual? Can it be said to have survived? Are clones to be equated to the same original lifeform?
 
enchanted_one1975

enchanted_one1975

Resident Lycanthrope
I do believe that urine does help the jellyfish sting. However, if you are not into that, you can spend a buck before going to the beach and be prepared. Bring a little thing of meat tenderizer (the seasoning, not the little hammer). Putting this on a jellyfish sting calms it down. I was told by a reliable source that paramedics along the Gulf of Mexico carry this on the ambulance for just such an occasion.
 
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