Conservative Political Forum

General Category => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Solar on February 05, 2017, 07:29:01 PM

Title: Jelly Fish Lives forever?
Post by: Solar on February 05, 2017, 07:29:01 PM
Not only can it turn back into a baby, it can clone itself. Question is, even if the original life is killed off, the clone, a perfect copy is somewhat a double jeopardy so to speak, where the lifeform has a second chance at continuing on regardless.
This is probably one of the weirdest things I've ever encountered on the web.

Turritopsis dohrnii, first discovered in the 1880s in the Mediterranean Sea.
Like all jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii begins life as a larva, called a planula, which develops from a fertilized egg. A planula swims at first, then settles on the sea floor and grows into a cylindrical colony of polyps. These ultimately spawn free-swimming, genetically identical medusae—the animals we recognize as jellyfish—which grow to adulthood in a matter of weeks.
Fully grown, Turritopsis dohrnii is only about 4.5 mm (0.18 inches) across, smaller than a pinky nail. A bright-red stomach is visible in the middle of its transparent bell, and the edges are lined with up to 90 white tentacles. These tiny, transparent creatures have an extraordinary survival skill, though. In response to physical damage or even starvation, they take a leap back in their development process, transforming back into a polyp. In a process that looks remarkably like immortality, the born-again polyp colony eventually buds and releases medusae that are genetically identical to the injured adult. In fact, since this phenomenon was first observed in the 1990s, the species has come to be called "the immortal jellyfish."

(https://conservativepoliticalforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amnh.org%2Fvar%2Fezflow_site%2Fstorage%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2Famnh%2Fimages%2Fexplore%2Fnews-and-blogs%2Fmay-2015-news-and-blogs-images%2Fimmortal-jellyfish%2F1872589-1-eng-US%2Fimmortal-jellyfish_imagelarge.jpg&hash=cc176692d761faa0e982e7809fbe55372e9fd0eb)

http://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/on-exhibit-posts/the-immortal-jellyfish