Jellyfish Facts
Jellyfish have drifted along on ocean currents for millions of years, even before dinosaurs lived on the earth. The jelly like creatures pulse along on ocean currents and are abundant in cold and warm ocean water, in deep water and along coastlines. They have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to daze or paralyze their prey before eating. Inside their body there is bell-shaped structure its mouth. They eat and throw waste out from this opening. As jellyfish splash water from their mouths they are moved forward. Tentacles hang down from the smooth bag like body and used to sting their prey. Their stings can be painful to humans and sometimes very dangerous but they don’t attack humans intentionally. It generally happens when people accidently touch a jellyfish. But if the sting is from a dangerous species, it can be fatal. Jellyfish digest their food very quickly. They wouldn’t be able to float if they had to carry an undigested meal. They dine on fish, shrimp, crabs and tiny plants. Sea turtles relish the taste of jellyfish. Some of them are clear, but others are in vibrant colours such as pink, yellow purple and often luminescent.
Facts you didn’t know: –
- A group of jellyfishes is called a swarm.
- Jellies are 95% water.
- Though jellies are soft-bodied and do not have skeletons which makes finding their fossils difficult. There is evidence that jellies predate dinosaurs by some 400 million years.
- Jellies have been known to eat other jellies.
- The creature lack not only bones but heads, hearts, eyes, blood, teeth and brains.
- A jellyfish is not a fish at all. It is an invertebrate (animal without a backbone).
- They are found in oceans all over the world. Some of them live in fresh water.
- They are considered a delicacy and are used in Chinese medicines.
- The largest jelly ever found was a lion’s Mane jelly.
- Some can be very hard to see, nearly invisible to the human eye.
- Large blooms can feature over 100000 jellyfishes.
- People in some countries eat jellyfishes.
