Jellyfish
Jellyfish
If you have been to the beach, you have probably seen some blobs of clearish, pinkish “goo” washed up on the sand. After doing some investigation, you probably also learned that the blob is a jellyfish. And, while that gooey mass of “jelly” on the beach might not seem too spectacular, it turns out that jellyfish are one of God’s most interesting creations.
First, you might like to know that jellyfish are not really fish. That is why some people call them jellies or sea jellies, to avoid using the word fish. However, several other kinds of sea creatures, such as starfish and shellfish, are called “fish” when they are not really fish, so the name jellyfish is still the most common. Most jellyfish have two main parts to their bodies. The larger mushroom-shaped “blobby” part is known as the bell, and the long, thin, stringy structures are called tentacles. Jellyfish have no brain, no heart, no blood, and no bones! Also, a group of jellyfish is known as a smack, a bloom, or a swarm. So, if a person is “talking smack,” it could be an in-depth discussion about a bunch of jellyfish.
Most jellyfish move by expanding and contracting their bell in a way that pushes water out of the bottom and propels them in the direction they want to go. If you have ever watched this process, you are aware that jellyfish would certainly not win any Olympic swimming races for speed. They would, however, win one kind of race. Since most jellyfish swim 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they need to conserve as much energy as possible. God designed them to be the most energy efficient swimmers in the entire ocean, outperforming even the fastest fish. Being energy-efficient is a measurement of how long (or far) an animal can swim on a certain amount of food (or calories). Picture it like this, there are 50 different cars lined up at the starting line of a race. One gallon of gas is put into each car’s gas tank. The car that goes the farthest is the most energy efficient. So, if all the sea creatures in the ocean were lined up for a race, and they all got a 100-calorie snack of food, the jellyfish would go farther than any other animal (if each animal weighed the same, such as a five-pound shark, five-pound octopus, five-pound sea turtle, five-pound jellyfish and so on).
Scientists have discovered about 2,000 different species of jellyfish, but they believe there are thousands more that we have not discovered. The largest jellyfish in the world is known as the lion’s mane jellyfish. It grows up to 1,200 tentacles that can be 120 feet long. This massive jellyroll can grow a bell that can reach seven feet across and weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. Getting the proper weight for a jellyfish is difficult, however, because much of the body is really just water (but almost 60% of the human body is water, too, and that doesn’t stop us from getting on a scale). The smallest jellyfish is called a creeping jellyfish. Its bell is about ½ of a millimeter across and its tentacles about the same length. To get an idea of how small that is, if you divide an inch into 100 equal spaces, the creeping jellyfish would only cover 2 of them. Or, if you have ever seen a one-foot wooden ruler that has inches on one side and centimeters on the other side, a creeping jellyfish would be half the length of the smallest line on the centimeter side (which is a millimeter line). Now, that is a tiny jelly.
You might wonder how long jellyfish live. The lion’s mane lives about one year. Some species live for a few months, and some only live for a few hours. There is one jellyfish, however, that is called the immortal jellyfish. Its technical, scientific name is Turritopsis dohrnii. How can a jellyfish be immortal? This little jelly (about ¼ of an inch long) has an amazing ability. Most jellyfish go through several life phases. They hatch out of an egg, find a place to attach to the ocean floor, and grow into a polyp stage. The polyp then grows into the mature madusa stage, which is the adult stage with a bell and tentacles. Almost all jellyfish, once they reach the adult stage, die in that stage. The immortal jellyfish, however, can do something very special. If it gets damaged or is starving, it can somehow make itself go back to the polyp stage and start all over. As far as scientists can tell, it can do this as many times as it needs to, and in theory, could keep doing it for hundreds or thousands of years (of course, if something eats it or kills it while in its adult stage, it dies permanently). Think about this: suppose you accidentally cut off your hand. If you could do what the immortal jellyfish does, you could make yourself go back to your embryo stage before you grew a hand and start the entire growing process all over again.
Jellyfish have another ability for which they are known far and wide all around the world. If you have spent any time in the ocean, the adults in your life have most likely warned you to be careful around jellyfish and avoid touching their tentacles. That is because almost all jellyfish contain stinging venom that they use to stun their prey and as a defense against predators. Most jellyfish have a mild venom that can cause large, red welts to arise on human skin. Some jellyfish, however, carry a much stronger venom. The Australian box jellyfish is the most venomous animal in the entire ocean. It has little, venomous darts in its tentacles that it can shoot into other animals and people. The venom is so powerful that it can kill an adult in just a few minutes. The Australian box jelly kills about 100 people every year around the world. It is interesting to compare that to how many people are killed by sharks. In 2023, 14 people were killed by sharks (most years it is 5-10). That means box jellies are about ten times more deadly than sharks. Needless to say, you do not want to swim with the box jellies.
It is remarkable that many fossils have been found of jellyfish. Since they do not have bones, their soft tissue decays quickly and rarely fossilizes. When we do find fossils of soft-bodied creatures such as jellyfish, it often provides evidence that the creatures were buried rapidly and did not take millions of years to fossilize, as many who teach evolution suggest. Furthermore, some of the fossils of jellyfish supposedly date back 500 million years (that is, according to false, old-age dating methods). Yet, when we compare them to “modern” jellyfish, they are just as complex as their modern counterparts. This helps us understand that jellyfish did not start out “simple” millions of years ago and evolve into complex jellyfish. Instead, God created them fully formed and complex on Day Five of the Creation week (Genesis 1:20-21). There never have been millions of years of jellyfish evolution. God’s amazing design is seen in the complex fossilized jellyfish, just as it is evident in the modern marvels we see swimming in the oceans today.
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posted by HPEDIE | 1:30 AM
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