The Oldest Jellyfish Ever: The Immortal Jellyfish Though there is no official 'oldest jellyfish ever', there is a very special species of jellyfish that scientists say may be immortal – biologically at least. Turritopsis dohrnii, dubbed 'the
Of those that do exist, the oldest-known jellyfish fossils, found in Utah, date to 505 million years ago and have enough detail to show clear relationships with some modern species of jellyfish.
The 557-million-year-old specimen challenges the theory that animal body plans were laid out in the Cambrian explosion. Auroralumina attenboroughii is an ancient creature that lived 557 million to 562 million years ago.
How long does the immortal jellyfish live? Potentially forever. Which gets more impressive considering these creatures have been floating through the oceans long before the dinosaurs went extinct (66 million years ago) – it's biologically possible for a single immortal jellyfish to have been alive for this entire time.
Who discovered immortal jellyfish? The species T. dohrnii was first described by scientists in 1883. It was 100 years later, in the 1980s, that their immortality was accidentally discovered.
Turritopsis dohrnii, the so-called "immortal jellyfish," can hit the reset button and revert to an earlier developmental stage if it is injured or otherwise threatened.
To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.
Can jellyfish feel pain? Jellyfish don't feel pain in the same way that humans would. They do not possess a brain, heart, bones or a respiratory system. They are 95% water and contain only a basic network of neurons that allow them to sense their environment.
Wild species can live anywhere from a few days to decades. One species in particular, dubbed the 'Immortal Jellyfish' (Turritopsis dohrnii) may actually live forever. This jellyfish is more likely to die at the hands (or mouth) of a turtle or fish, than from old age.
The Chirodectes macalatus Box jellyfish of course! Captured on GoPro by veteran diver Dorian Borcherds in the New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea, this rare jellyfish has only been spotted one other time on record.
Jellyfish predate dinosaurs by hundreds of millions of years. Jellyfish don't have bones, so fossils are hard to come by. Even so, scientists have uncovered evidence these creatures have been living in our Ocean for at least 500 million years!
Brendborg, scientists have discovered a jellyfish the size of a fingernail that responds to stress by “ageing backwards,” reversing the normal direction of its development to become a bottom-dwelling polyp.
The immortal jellyfish can regenerate and live forever.
It regularly reverts to a sexually immature stage after it has reproduced as well as when it is injured, starving, or dying. The only way it can die is by being eaten, being removed from the water, or contracting diseases.
Although many species of jellyfish have some capacity to reverse aging and revert to a larval state, most of them lose this ability once they reach sexual maturity. However, Turritopsis dohrnii appears to be the only known species able to repeatedly revert back into a larval stage even after sexual reproduction.
Throughout their lifecycle, jellyfish take on two different body forms: medusa and polyps. Polyps can reproduce asexually by budding, while medusae spawn eggs and sperm to reproduce sexually.
Jellyfish have no brains and therefore are not aware of their own existence. So no, while alive they are not “conscious”.
Though jellyfish do not have a brain, they are incredibly smart and adaptable. For more than 500 million years, they've been bobbing around almost all the world's oceans, both close to the water surface as well as in depths of up 700 meters. The jellyfish is the world's oldest animal.
Flatworms, nematodes, and cnidarians (jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals) do not have a circulatory system and thus do not have blood. Their body cavity has no lining or fluid within it. They obtain nutrients and oxygen directly from the water that they live . Q.
Blue blood is found in octopuses and horseshoe crabs. This is due to the fact that hemocyanin, the protein that transports oxygen in their blood, is blue. Octopuses have three hearts, which is due in part to their blue blood.
The rarest animal in the world is the vaquita (Phocoena sinus). It is a kind of critically endangered porpoise that only lives in the furthest north-western corner of the Gulf of California in Mexico. There are only 18 left in the world.
There are two main ways that jellyfish reproduce and if the conditions are favourable they can do this daily. There are a few jellyfish species that receive sperm through their mouths to fertilise eggs inside the body cavity, but most jellyfish just release sperm or eggs directly into the water.
Natural Predators
Among the predators of the jellyfish, the following have been identified: ocean sunfish, grey triggerfish, turtles (especially the leatherback sea turtle), some seabirds (such as the fulmars), the whale shark, some crabs (such as the arrow and hermit crabs), some whales (such as the humpbacks).
They don't have any blood so they don't need a heart to pump it. And they respond to the changes in their environment around them using signals from a nerve net just below their epidermis — the outer layer of skin.