Three Jellyfishes - No Brains. What Beauty.
Updated: Dec 30, 2020
If you ever needed proof that one does NOT need a brain to survive, here you go. These creatures - we call them jellyfish, but they are not really fish - have lived on Earth for about 500 million years. Some estimate they have lived for longer - nearly 700 million years.
How do we know?
Well, we found jellyfish fossil in rocks that are more than 500 million years old.
According to NSF -
This study clearly shows what paleontologists have long suspected--that jellyfish have a history that's much older than their known fossil record," said Patrick Herendeen, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of environmental biology, which funded the research through the Assembing the Tree of Life (AToL) program, along with NSF's division of earth sciences. "Adding some 200 million years to the age of jellyfish is quite a jump. What's even more surprising is the apparent diversity of jellyfish forms present at that time."
They have lived on Earth millions of years before humans arrived and they might live equally long after we're gone. Depressing? Not at all. These jellyfish don't mind the ocean warming and are doing fine in more acidic waters. They are so minimalist that they need little to live. They have survived in the ocean for millions of years. They have survived and reproduced in space without trouble - except for developing vertigo from lack of gravity. Some of these are immortal and some are the most lethal, venomous creatures on Earth... like, a box jellyfish.
Box jellyfish are so lethal that a sting can cause cardiac arrest, paralysis, or death, in minutes. The pain itself sends the unfortunate soul into shock. Not sure why the box jellyfish needs to have such a lethal poison at its disposal, but there you are. The animals not affected by these box jellyfish poison are sea turtles, who chomp on the box jellyfish quite happily, we are told.
Here are some of the prettiest jellyfish on Earth -
White Spotted Jellyfish:
Flower Hat Jelly:
Fried Egg Jellyfish.
Like I said. No brains. But what beauty.
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