New Jellyfish Discovered near Marina Trench

image from here

Scientist have discovered a rare jellyfish that has never been seen before. The jellyfish had bright light gonads, two sets of tentacles, long and short, that extend from its pulsating bell. When the long tentacles are extended outward, the jellyfish's bell remains still. 

It's Not What You Think

Whoa, get a load of this! This isn't an extra-long jellyfish species. Rather, it's a marrus orthocanna, which is a colonial animal made of several different zooids connected together at the spine.

The zooids work together to move and collect food. The marrus orthocann is a deep-sea creature, found at depths ranging from 600 to 2,500 feet.

The Best New Species Of 2012

Did you know that scientists discover 15,000 to 20,000 new species every year? It seems a little hard to believe, since there are already 8 million existing species known. The International Institute for Species Exploration recently listed their top, most interesting new species of 2012 - check out a few of our favorites.

The monkey that sneezes when it starts to rain

The monkey's nose is so upturned that rain causes it to sneeze. To avoid inhaling water, they sit with their heads tucked between their legs.

The blue tarantula

This jewel-toned tarantula, which hails from Brazil, might be the prettiest tarantula we've ever seen (not that it means we actually want to see it in person).

The banded box jellyfish

As deadly as it is beautiful, this jellyfish was first sited in 2001 but a specimen wasn't captured until 2008. It is one of approximately 50 box jellyfish species.

The Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium Review

We're wrapping up our coverage of our visit to the Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium! Today we wanted to give you a rundown of the features and exhibits that we fell in love with, the ones that will absolutely keep us going back to the aquarium time and again.

1) The touch pond. This one should be pretty self explanatory, because, really, how many chances do you get to touch a star fish? Or a spiny urchin or a limpit? It was also funny to see the difference in the ways people approached the touch pond - some dove their hands right in to pick up and feel every creature while others were more hesitant to put their hand in the water.

2) The jellyfish tank. We talked about this in our Wednesday post, but the jellyfish tank really was one of the coolest things we've seen. It just sucked you right in, with the lights and the soft music playing in that section. The jellyfish looked so etheral, just floating there. Really and truly, we would have spent hours just staring at that exhibit if we could have.

3) The underwater tunnel. There were multiple reasons why we loved this part of the aquarium  For one, having the fish swim over and around you reminded us of how it feels to go snorkeling or scuba diving (and gave us a craving to back into the sea)! Two, it's fun to see the fish from below, rather than just from the side or above as with many aquarium tanks. And three, even though there was thick glass between us and the fish, it felt like we were really close to them. One of the best parts of our trip was taking pictures of a manta ray and then turning around to see a shark swim right by our faces!

So there you have it, a few of the things we absolutely loved about the Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium. Have you convinced you to visit it yet? If so, you can buy your tickets here.

Pic Of The Week - Jellyfish In Space

This week's picture is one we took while visiting the Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium. It's a view of the jellyfish tank there, which we literally could have stared at for hours! It was so hypnotizing, and peaceful. The title of this post comes from the little white specks floating with the jellyfish... it really did seem like they were drifting along in outer space.

The colors you see are coming from the colored lights along the exhibit. They ranged from white to red to blue. It was a fun touch, we thought. Normally we only do one picture for our Pic Of The Week posts, but we had too many great jellyfish shots we wanted to share. Enjoy!

Apologies for the large image sizes, but going any smaller just didnt' do these pictures justice! To read our review of the Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium, click here.



Clownfish and Sea Anemones - A Working Relationship

Clownfish are a prized addition to most any collector’s aquarium, as their bright colors are quite beautiful. However, in the wilds of the open ocean these small fish have little in the way of natural defenses, and there are plenty of hungry predators that would love to have them for lunch. What’s a clownfish to do? Find a much bigger best friend!

Clownfish share a symbiotic mutual relationship with sea anemones, predatory animals closely related to corals and jellyfish. The sea anemone inhabits coral reefs and uses its stinging tentacles to paralyze prey and enemy alike. Using fast-acting toxins for both offense and defense makes the anemone seem rather a self-sufficient creature, yet it harbors, even welcomes, the small tropical clownfish to take up residence among its tentacles.

The clownfish not only gets a wonderful living defense system from the anemone, but also an occasional meal from the scraps of fish the anemone fails to ingest. This relationship works both ways as the anemone will snack on any scraps the clownfish drops as well. The action of the clownfish also stirs up fresh water currents and moves them over the sedentary anemone.

So, how does the anemone know not to sting? There are a few different theories. One is that the anemone doesn't know, but that the mucus coating of the clownfish protects it from the anemone's toxins. This is possible because clownfish that have had this mucus wiped off of them have been stung and killed by their previous hosts. Another theory states that the chemical content of the mucus coating prevents the anemone from recognizing the clownfish as a food source, and therefore the anemone fails to react to the little fish's presence.

The Immortal Jellyfish

It seems like stories of people searching for the fountain of youth have been around forever, and as far as animals go there are certainly plenty with much longer life spans than humans. Koi fish have been known to live over 200 years, at least one Aldabra giant tortoise lived to be 255, and a giant barrel sponge in the Caribbean is estimated to be more than 2,300 years old. However, there may be one animal that is indeed impervious to Father Time; Turritopsis nutricula, the immortal jellyfish.

Photo: Peter Schuchert

All jellyfish go through several life cycles. There are born as larvae that settle onto the sea floor or other underwater structure and develop into polyps, which look similar to a tiny octopus with its tentacles pointed up. The jellyfish buds from this polyp and begins its adult life, feeding constantly and growing quite rapidly. After reaching adult size the jellyfish will spawn, usually dying a short time after. The largest jellyfish live 2-6 months, with smaller varieties only living a matter of weeks.

So, how does the tiny (0.18”) immortal jellyfish manage to live on? The answer is a process called transdifferentiation. After the immortal jellyfish spawns as an adult, it uses this process to transform its cells back into that of an immature polyp, dropping to the sea floor and starting its lifecycle all over again. Some animals such as salamanders can use this process to re-grow limbs, but the immortal jellyfish is the only known animal that can apply transdifferentiation to its whole body, meaning that instead of dying, it becomes a newborn again; and it can repeat this process over and over.

Because these jellyfish are immortal, their population is exploding. Once native only to Caribbean waters, they can now be found in oceans all over the world.

Old Jellyfish and Sharks

Jellyfish and sharks both existed way before the dinosaurs. Jellyfish date back 500 million years and sharks, 400 million years.

Watch Out for the Box Jellyfish

The Box Jellyfish is the most poisonous jellyfish: Its sting can kill within three minutes. In fact, the amount of venom in a Box Jellyfish could kill 60 people. This type of jellyfish is pale blue and transparent, and can have up to 15 tentacles that can reach 10 feet in length. They can be found in the Indo-Pacific and off the coast of Northern Australia, so next time you’re in the area make sure to watch out!

Bonus Fact: The Box Jellyfish has 24 eyes, but ironically has blurry vision. And it has 64 anuses.

Top Ten New Species of 2007 Named: Number Seven and Eight

7. New Mushroom

This new species of fungus was discovered on the campus of Imperial College, London. This is probably the least exciting new species that was named, but I wanted you to see all ten. :)

8. Lethal Jellyfish (Malo kingi)

This jellyfish was named after American tourist Robert King, who died after apparently being stung by the species off northern Queensland in Australia in 2002. The new jelly is the second known species of the dangerous Malo box jellyfish genus.

To see a slideshow of the top ten new species of 2007 named, visit National Geographic.

"J" is for Jellyfish

I've told you before; I grew up on the coast. My summers (and springs and falls and fine winter days) were usually spent on the beach. The entertainment value of waves, breakwater, sand and tidal pools can not be over-rated. I've no idea how many miles of beach I've walked looking for the perfect shell or the most interesting bit of driftwood. More often than not, I would also find little translucent blobs dotting the tide line. They looked like someone had dribbled color free gelatin all over the beach. My friends and I would scoop them up with bits of shell, filling our buckets so we could dutifully take them back to the blanket-full of adults and find out what they were and if we could use them in our sandcastles.

They were jellyfish, of course. There are around 2,000 species of jellyfish inhabiting all the waters of the world. They come in many shapes, sizes, colors and toxicity. Did I say toxicity? You bet I did. Jellyfish have no brain, no spine and no bones, but they do have a nasty sting. When anything brushes against the jellyfish's tentacles, the tentacles react, firing harpoons of poison into the victim. Since the jellyfish has no brain to direct assaults, the tentacles react independently, to touch stimuli. They are part of a "nerve net." This means even if the tentacles are no longer attached to the major body mass, or bell, of the jellyfish, they can still sting. Also, seeing a jellyfish washed up on the shore is no security against being stung. If the tentacles are wet they still may be able to inject you with poison. Although only a few jellyfish species can kill humans, most will sting, and the pain can last for hours. Best practice is to avoid touching jellyfish with your bare skin.

The jellies we gathered on the beach in Rhode Island were not harmful to humans. Still, even as children, we had been taught not to handle anything until we knew what it was. Sound advice. In July of 2006, Rhode Island beaches got a "jolt" when Portuguese Man-of-Wars invaded the coast. Although not technically a jellyfish (they are siphonophores, a colony of organisms that live and hunt together), the Man-of-War can be lethal to humans, and attacks with a powerfully painful sting even after it's washed ashore. So, when it comes to oddities on the beach, remember, no touchy.