Chance Encounter
by Suzanne Stout
Title
Chance Encounter
Artist
Suzanne Stout
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
Jellies don't have bones, brains, teeth, blood or fins—and they're more than 95 percent water. Yet they thrive in the world's ocean, and to its darkest depths. Jellies are strange and captivatingly beautiful, making them one of the Aquarium's all-time favorite animals.
"Jellies" are any animals that have gelatinous body forms and live in the water column, including jellyfish. Jellyfish, or "true jellies," are medusae belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. At the Aquarium we have both kinds of animals on exhibit.
Jellies use stinging cells—also known as nematocysts—to catch, sting and inactivate their prey. The stinging cells are blind but sensitive; when they brush against an object they burst and out pops a tiny, sharp barb that pierces the prey and injects it with venom. Digestion begins in the jelly's oral arms, which guide the prey to its mouth found in the center under its bell.
Inside the bell there are open chambers, like stomachs, where the prey is further digested and then passed around the body through a series of interconnected canals.
Most jellies have mild toxins that don't bother humans. But some can be as painful as bee stings, and a few, like the sea wasp, can be extremely dangerous.
Jellies are not the strongmen of the ocean, but if you've ever been mesmerized by a group of them pulsing to their own rhythms, you've seen them flex their muscles. The transparent muscle fibers are arranged in rays that stretch from the center of the bell to the margin. With a synchronized squeeze of these muscles—coordinated by a simple net of nerve cells—the jelly throws its body into a wave that moves smoothly outward from the bell, pushing it forward. The motion also stirs up water and pushes it past the jelly's tentacles.
Most jellies eat small, swimming organisms called plankton: a mixture of tiny creatures like amphipods, copepods and krill. They also eat juvenile shrimps, crabs, fish and even other jellies.
Uploaded
March 19th, 2016
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