 |
| We have no idea what kind of jellyfish this is. |
Vlad found this little guy swimming in the marina and caught him in a plastic box for me. You can't tell by the photo, but those orange stripes had stuff - I'm not sure what - pulsing through them, almost like cars moving down a highway. We looked at him for a bit, put him back in the water and watched as he floated away. If anyone has any idea what kind of jelly he is, I would love to know.
One could argue that I post too often about jellyfish, but I just can't help it! They're fascinating creatures, and for a while my favorite animal was the Portuguese Man-O-War after I saw a ton of them on the beach at Padre Island. Though in the same phylum, technically, Man-O-War aren't true jellyfish but rather a colony of tiny animals that have "agreed" to live together in symbiotic, stinging harmony. And despite they're ferocious sting, I thought they were beautiful.
 |
| One of the Man-O-War we saw. Not a lot of swimming that day! |
I'm no expert on jellyfish, but I think the particles are food that is being digested.
ReplyDeleteAlas, I am not an expert either, and there probably was some food involved. However, it moved in a continuous motion, kind of flowing around its body following those stripes, and word on the street is the "stuff" I saw was actually cilia.
DeleteI believe this is actually a comb jelly (Ctenophora), which is technically not a jellyfish. The things moving down the side are cilia, and it's how they move about—one of the things that differentiates them from a jellyfish.
ReplyDeleteBe thankful wikipedia is back online. :)
Charles, I knew you would figure it out! I've seen these guys in a zoo before, but I couldn't remember what they were called, except something about Cnidaria. Under a black light, the cilia are iridescent. Tre cool.
DeleteI am, indeed, thankful for wikipedia. It really is useful for jellyfish research.