Lion's mane jellyfish: Meet the creature that is dominating the seas

Have you heard of dandelion jellyfish? For, besides being extremely beautiful, this creature - Cyanea capillata - is the largest jellyfish in the world with a body that can measure more than 2 meters in diameter and tentacles that can reach more than 35 meters in length. But before we talk about the problems related to the rampant reproduction of these animals, how about getting to know them a little better?

Lion-mane jellyfish inhabit the seas from Mexico to the Arctic, and encounters with them are not usually very pleasant! They have hundreds of giant tentacles, all equipped with poison cells - the cnidoblasts - to capture their prey, which can be anything from zooplankton and fish eggs, to other jellyfish and even individuals of their own species.

According to the Wired website, although the toxins present in dandelion mane cnidoblasts are not as potent as those found in sea wasps, they are deadly enough to incapacitate the small creatures they feed on. to cause a lot of pain to unsuspecting humans who cross their path.

Simplicity and efficiency

Now imagine such a battalion of animals with hundreds of poisonous tentacles, each capable of capturing victims who will be devoured without mercy. Once captured, the tentacles carry their prey to their mouth, which is no more than a hole in the body. jellyfish that also acts as anus. In the stomach, the digestive process is so simple and efficient that even after 600 million years of existence, these creatures did not even have to evolve.

The negative - or positive, from the point of view of the victims! - of these creatures have not evolved is that they, unlike other jellyfish that have very developed organs for vision, have no eyes, being equipped only with rudimentary structures able to detect light. In addition, dandelion manes, instead of having brains, have a nervous structure that essentially controls all their vital processes.

The clone attack

You may be wondering how these practically blind and "brainless" creatures reproduce. Males release a kind of filament composed of sperm that are captured by the female's "mouth-anus". Then fertilization occurs and then larvae are released and wander on their own until they reach the bottom of the sea.

There the larvae turn into small tubes called polyps, and when conditions are optimal, they start producing hundreds and hundreds of clones of their own. Because thanks to global warming, these creatures are reproducing much more and developing faster than normal.

French

According to scientists at CSIRO - the governmental organization for scientific research in Australia - although pollution, rampant fishing, global warming and the resulting environmental imbalance are a plague to many marine species, all of this is a real blessing for jellyfish. And this is not good for humans.

The researchers explained that there is still not much data about the explosion in the jellyfish population. However, they already know some consequences: in addition to more accidents with bathers, more nuclear power plants could be attacked and clogged and some species of fish could disappear after the lion's mane devoured all their little eggs. And you know what's the worst of all? In the end, it is the fault of humans themselves.