Surely you have heard the expression "reality is stranger than fiction." Well, nothing could be further from the truth, nature shows us its special capacity and all its power with species of animals that do not seem real. In this case, we are talking about a species that, although it seems to be the result of fiction, is totally real. It's about the immortal jellyfish. His scientific name is Turritopsis Nitricula. It has a characteristic that many people would like to have, immortality.
In this article we are going to talk about the characteristics of the immortal jellyfish and we will learn more about its secrets.
Key features
This is something that is not common. An immortal living being. And it is that this jellyfish has the ability to regenerate itself and live forever. Every time it takes damage, is able to rejuvenate itself and heal itself. Not only is its regenerative capacity impressive, but it is also visually one of the most beautiful jellyfish in the world.
It has an elongated bell-shaped umbrella no more than 5 millimeters in diameter. It is considered one of the smallest jellyfish in an adult state. It does not need more size, with its regeneration capacity, it does not need a large size to perform its actions. The composition of the umbrella is quite fine and thin and has no color. Thanks to this, we can see the inside of the jellyfish easily.
It has an intense crimson digestive system and a whiter layer that covers it. When the immortal jellyfish reaches its adult stage, it is capable of having a hundred tiny tentacles. However, the hatchlings do not have more than a couple dozen of them. With the passage of time and development, they grow until they have such a quantity.
Habitat and area of distribution
It is not an easy thing to find the location of the immortal jellyfish. It has been found in seas around the world. Some studies have found the correlation between their locations after spotting them at various points and it has been found that they have genetics mixed with other species of jellyfish. It could be said that the distribution area where they are most abundant is in the Caribbean seas.
It is here that it was thought that it began to migrate to other seas and oceans with temperate waters. These jellyfish prefer warm water over cold water. One of the reasons they are expanding more and more is because they don't die. If they don't die, they are able to reproduce over and over again until there are more and more.
What must be mentioned is that they do not die by themselves. But if they are attacked they can be perfectly eaten or killed. In these cases, he would die. Since it is a jellyfish capable of defending itself and easily fleeing predators, its survival capacity is very high and, because of this, they are spreading so widely throughout the world.
Cycle of the immortal jellyfish
We are going to analyze the life cycle of the immortal jellyfish. Life begins as a planula larva, like any other jellyfish of another species. When released to the sea, it will be able to feed until it can settle on a rock that it can use to supply itself with food.
There are many cases in which it has been found that the larvae fixate on the shells of mollusks that rest on the stone under the sea. As they begin to adapt and settle, they form real colonies of polyps from which other tiny jellyfish emerge that will break away from this place to start swimming freely. This is how, every time, Immortal jellyfish populations grow and grow. Since they are immortal, they only die when hunted. Its reproduction rate is high, so there are more and more around the world.
If the jellyfish grows and in its adult phase there comes a time when a disease causes them enough damage that their life can end, they are able to reverse the entire process. Namely, they are able to break down the entire cellular system to form a polyp again and of those that will come out jellyfish that will be an exact copy of the adult. You could say that they are clones.
Since this process can be repeated countless times, this species of jellyfish is considered immortal.
Breathing
Many people have doubts about how these animals breathe. By not having a specific organ to breathe, doubt invades many people. We can only see his stomach through the transparent skin. However, we can't see gills, lungs or anything. And is that these jellyfish they can breathe through the diffusion process.
Like other animals such as protozoa and other organisms such as sea sponges they breathe through cell diffusion. That is, they carry out a gas exchange with the dissolved oxygen in the water thanks to the activity of their own cells. This process can be perfectly carried out without the need for the jellyfish to have a specific organ.
Although there is usually enough oxygen in the water for all species, You won't be able to find many of these jellyfish together, since they have dissolved oxygen left. If there are enough immortal jellyfish close to each other, they will go to the oxygenated zones, because together they decrease oxygen and increase carbon dioxide.
Main threats
Although she is an immortal jellyfish, she also has some threats that can kill her. The way to reverse the polyp process only uses it if it is threatened by another species and seriously damaged. If it has a good chance of being eaten, it is capable of transforming its cells into a young and renewed state in such a way that all its cells would become part of the new polyp. Such a polyp would give rise to countless jellyfish identical to it.
I hope you liked this information and it helps you to know more about the immortal jellyfish.