Fauna Fabula: Unreal Animals in the Real World

Nomura’s Jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai)

Nomura’s Jellyfish also known as the Echizen kurage by the Japanese, is a large Japanese Jellyfish whose width is slightly larger than a height of a fully grown man. It can grow up to 2 meters and weigh about 450lb (220 kg) which is as heavy as a male lion. It is the biggest jellyfish in the world. When the Nomura’s Jellyfish is under attack or killed they release billions of sperm or eggs, they connect with the water and attach to rocks or coral formations. These eggs detach from their home when the conditions are favorable and grow into more jellyfish millions at a time.

This makes the problem of combating the Nomura Jellyfish even more difficult. And the baby Nomura’s Jellyfish grow from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a washing machine in less than six months.

Upside-down Jellyfish (Cassiopeia Andromeda)

A type of jellyfish that usually lives in intertidal sand or mud flats, shallow lagoons, and around mangroves. This jellyfish, many times mistaken for a sea anemone, usually has its mouth upward on the bottom. Its bell, which is yellow-brown with streaks and spots that are white or pale, vibrates to make the water flow through its arms for respiration and the obtaining of food.

Unknown Species

Would anyone happen to know what it’s called? I received this image from a friend and she didn’t know either.

EDIT;

Seems to be identified as a juvenile Giant Bell Jellyfish (Scrippsia Pacifica). Any objections?

Red and Purple Jellyfish (Crossota millsae)

Crossota millsae is a brilliant red and purple jellyfish also found off California and Hawaii. This specimen was collected near the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in 2,000m of water. Males and females have both been described, and it reproduces sexually. It was named after Dr. Claudia Mills, a marine scientist at the Friday Harbor Laboratories.

“Darth Vader” Jellyfish (Bathykorus bouilloni)

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.

Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis nutricula)

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life). Turritopsi nutricula can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

In other words, Turritopsi nutricula can bypass death. They are truly immortal.

Red Paper Lantern Jellyfish (Pandea rubra)

Vacuumed up from its habitat a mile down in the ocean, the red paper lantern jelly may not look like much. Mostly water, it’s so fragile that once brought to the surface it’s reduced to a tattered blob in a jar. Pandea rubra has an unusual ability among sea jellies: it can fold up its red “lantern,” or mantle, in neat right angles. Another team studying Pandea rubra was about to name it the “origami jelly” before they realized the species had already been described.

Portuguese Man o’ War (Physalia physalis)

Despite its outward appearance, the Man o’ War is not a true jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Each of these zooids is highly-specialized and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, are attached to each other and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival.

The Man o’ War is found in warm water seas floating on the surface of open ocean, its air bladder keeping it afloat and acting as a sail while the rest of the organism hangs below the surface. It has no means of self-propulsion and is entirely dependent on winds, currents, and tides. It is most common in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans, but can drift outside of this range on warm currents such as the Atlantic Gulf Stream.