Humanity has long been in search of the elixir of immortality. Recent scientific evidence suggests that on our beautiful planet there is a creature that can live forever. This, it would seem, has long been investigated and well-known by all jellyfish, or rather, a small creature called the nutricula. Want to know how you found a jellyfish that lives forever?
Invisible creatures
Nutricula jellyfish have been known in the scientific world for a long time. The first description of this creature appeared in the nineteenth century. The reproduction and life cycle of a nutricula is quite ordinary. As with all jellyfish, sperm fertilizes the eggs on the surface of the sea, then the eggs turn into a larva. Then there is a lowering of the planula to the bottom and the formation of a polyp, from which a tiny jellyfish separates, which lives forever. Photos of these creatures are presented below.
The appearance of the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula is not remarkable, rather, we can say that this is a miniature creature. It has an umbrella with a diameter of less than 5 mm, which is surrounded by thin tentacles. Just born jellyfish have only 8 of them, while an adult individual has up to 100 pieces. It also has a cross-shaped red spot, formed in the middle of the umbrella by the digestive organs of the jellyfish. Newborn Nutricles only 1 mm in size.
Amazing find
The end of the last century was marked by an amazing discovery. It turns out that jellyfish live forever. The discovery was made by the Italian Fernando Boero. Having decided to clean an aquarium that was forgotten in his time, the scientist discovered strange polyps. These unusual growths were similar to jellyfish, which before that lived in an aquarium, but only without tentacles. The scientist decided to continue the experiment, although the remaining creatures in the aquarium died. Filling it with sea water, Boero began to observe the polyps. After some time, they began to develop, and as a result tiny tiny jellyfish jellyfish were born.
The seemingly impossible happened - nutricules turned the cycle of their own development. Until that time, it was known that all jellyfish have a final stage of development - the breeding phase. In most intestinal animals, and not only in them, the birth of fertilized cells or eggs leads to the death of adults. And already from them young growth appears, in jellyfish the larvae turn into polyps, and already small jellyfish are born from them. The discovery of Boero turned back all knowledge of jellyfish. So, scientists have found a jellyfish that lives forever.
Life cycle
Representatives of this species, like other types of hydroid organisms, go through 2 stages of development. The first begins with the development of larvae after fertilization of the eggs. Then, the larvae that fall into the free space settle to the bottom of the ocean, where they turn into polyps. Thus, entire colonies of jellyfish appear, in appearance resembling a spindle or mace. At this stage of development, polyps form a kind of skeleton, at the end of which there are tentacles with stinging cells characteristic of jellyfish . So, an entire colony is able to feed on small creatures.
The second stage begins with the separation of young jellyfish from polyps. Thus, small jellyfish begin to lead our usual way of life. In a few months they reach puberty, and the whole process is repeated anew. How is it that jellyfish live forever? Interestingly, jellyfish have additional ways to preserve the look.
Jellyfish features
Saving life is associated with the ability of hydroid creatures to recovery processes. It has long been known that jellyfish in a short period of time can restore lost parts of the body. It has been experimentally proved that a jellyfish cut into pieces can reproduce itself. This recovery process is called transdifferentiation. In fact, another can develop from one type of cell, which means that theoretically all jellyfish live forever. However, many other creatures have these abilities. Lizards can calmly grow a new tail for themselves, and scientists are able today to grow individual organs from stem cells.
But the ability of the jellyfish nutricula to restore its entire body is truly unique. She is able to repeat the process an infinite number of times and at the same time remain forever young. It was these processes that gave scientists the assumption that jellyfish live forever.
Today, scientists are closely monitoring this type of jellyfish to study the rejuvenation process in more detail. On our amazing planet, there are many more creatures unknown to humans that have not yet revealed their secrets.