Breaking News
Sunday, 18 November 2012

500-700 juta tahun yang lalu, bahkan sebelum dinosaurus menjelajahi Bumi, ubur-ubur telah hanyut bersama arus laut. Ubur-ubur adalah salah satu spesies laut yang paling spektakuler dan misterius di dunia. Mereka adalah hewan multi-organ tertua dan telah berkembang menjadi lebih dari 2.000 spesies ubur-ubur yang berbeda. Beberapa hidup di air tawar, namun ubur-ubur dapat ditemukan di setiap laut. Beberapa ubur-ubur laut hidup dekat dengan permukaan, sementara yang lain tinggal di kedalaman yang ekstrim, bersinar dengan bioluminescence dalam air gelap gulita dekat dasar laut. Banyak ilmuwan dan penjelajah laut dalam berharap untuk menemukan ubur-ubur yang lebih indah saat mereka menjelajahi ngarai laut dalam, dan dalam kondisi air ekstrim dekat ventilasi gunung berapi bawah laut dan suhu beku keras perairan Arktik.


Inside the bell or umbrella-shaped body is the mouth opening and jellyfish tentacles hang down from gelatinous bodies. They use the stinging cells of their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat it. Jellies mostly float on ocean currents, but if a jellyfish squirts water from its mouths, then it can propel forward.

“Butterfly Jellies,” titled the photographer.



Medusa Cassiopea which live primarily in the Mediterranean Sea.





A flotilla of fish follow a transparent drifting jellyfish, Aurelia aurita. The stingers in its tentacles have toxins in them. A jellyfish will sting anything that comes in contacts with including other creatures in the water and even humans. The sting of different jellies have different toxicity levels.






Jellyfish at the Osaka Aquarium.


Every year more bioluminescent jellyfish are discovered. Top left: Ctenophore from Tasmanian waters with refracted rainbow colors. Top right: Comb jelly capable of bioluminescence. Many jellyfish can glow and light up in various colors of the rainbow. A jelly may become luminescent as a warning to stay away.

Jellyfish. Federated States of Micronesia, Chuuk.

 Pink and white delicate jelly.



Left: The Smithsoian Ocean Portal writes, “A “pink meanie” jellyfish (Drymonema larsoni)—a species found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean—feeds on a moon jelly (Aurelia). Dr. Keith Bayha from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Dr. Michael Dawson from the University of California, Merced recently discovered that the pink meanie represents not only a new species, but an entirely new family of jellyfish.” Right: NOAA’s “The Hidden Ocean, Arctic 2005: The new jellyfish is in the order Narcomedusae. It has four tentacles, 12 stomach pouches, and most interestingly, four small secondary tentacles at the very edge of the bell. While foraging for food, this species holds its long tentacles, covered with poison filled stinging cells, out in front while it swims, perhaps to ambush its prey more effectively.”

Aurelia aurita jellyfish seen during Operation Deep Scope.

Top left: Midwater Sea Jelly: The midwater scyphomedusa Atolla tenella, as seen under a microscope. Top right: Atolla is a jellyfish common from midwater, about 500 meters deep, where there is still a small amount of sunlight, to depths of 4,500 meters, far below the limit of sunlight’s penetration. Where there is light, its red color looks black, making it hard to see. It also produces brilliant bioluminescence, possibly to frighten predators Lower left: Alien-looking creatures, like this deep-red jellyfish, Crossota norvegica, float in the Arctic Sea. Lower right: Operation Deep Scope NOAA: Eye-in-the-Sea Bioluminescence — The deep-sea scyphozoan jellyfish, Atolla wyvillei, as seen under white light.

Massive swarm of sea nettles jellies (Chrysaora fuscescens)





Left: This tiny and very dangerous Portugese Man-O-War jellyfish measures only an inch across. It was collected using a dip net over the rail of the R-V Seward Johnson during one evenings “night-lighting” samplings. Its sting is said to be as toxic as a cobra’s bite. Center: Porpida porpida has a small disc like body and floats freely in the water column. Related to other species of jellyfish, this species measures just one inch in diameter. Right Top: Tiny jellyfish at Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. Right Bottom: Jellyfish Bicol. 


Left: Purple jellyfish (Águilas, Spain). Right: Jelly in the Vancouver aquarium; “Check out the lights on this alien craft….”

 Cnidaria aquarium zoo in pairi daiza Belgium.




Australian Box Jellyfish is listed as #3 in the deadliest animals on the planet, even more so that #4 the Great White shark. The box jelly is the most venomous marine animal known to mankind. It transparent and pale blue in color, which makes it pretty much invisible in the water. For a long time, nobody knew what was causing swimmers such excruciating pain and sometimes killing them. Also called the Sea Wasp, these jellies are strong, graceful swimmers. The box jelly can grow up to 5-6 inches in diameter and 4-6 inches in height.



“Fancy hat” jellyfish looks a bit like a Tiffany lamp. Right: The inner glow of jelly on Ningaloo Reef, Australia.





Post a Comment