- Since it's a special day, and all.
Here are more jellyfish fun facts for National Jellyfish Day! Can you hardly wait?
- Not only that, but box jellyfish can also move up to six meters per minute! The shelf-like shape of their bells allows them to catch and expel water more quickly than most jellies, which simply drift with the current. That is one of the
quickest jellyfish fun facts on the list. - Many jellyfish have bioluminescent organs which emit blue or green light.
- The light emission is usually activated by touch, which serves to startle predators. This light may also help jellyfish when attracting prey or warning other organisms that an area is off limits.
- Jellyfish are the oldest multi-organ animal
- Jellyfish have been here for at least 600 million years!
- Jellyfish have been here since before dinosaurs or fish with bones, insects or plant life, or even fungi.
- Jellyfish have survived five mass extinctions. Even the Great Dying, (or the Permian-Triassic extinction event,) which wiped out up to 70% of life on Earth.
- Jellyfish don’t have brains. They also don’t have bones or a heart. Jellyfish have an elementary nervous system with receptors that detect light, vibrations, and chemicals in the water. They can also sense gravity and this allows jellyfish to orient themselves and navigate through the water.
- Jellyfish are found all over the world. Did you know this as one of the jellyfish
fun facts? - Jellyfish are found in every ocean from the coldest freezing waters of the Arctic oceans, to the warm, temperate waters of the tropical oceans. They can survive in different water conditions, at different depths and are even found in some freshwater lakes and ponds.
- Some jellyfish are immortal and not shockingly, it’s called the immortal jellyfish or Turritopsis dohrnii. It’s found in the Mediterranean Sea and the waters of Japan and this jellyfish is biologically immortal.
- Not all jellyfish have tentacles.
- The Deepstaria jellyfish known for their thin, sheet-like bodies and their lack of tentacles.
- The giant jellyfish is also called the hair jelly also known as the lion’s mane jellyfish, cyanea capillata and it’s the largest known species of jellyfish.
- The largest recorded specimen was found washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870. It had a bell with a diameter of 7 feet 6 inches and tentacles 121.4 feet long – longer than a blue whale and is considered one of the longest known animals in the world.
- 150 million people are stung by jellyfish each year. That’s a lot of jellyfish stings
and one of the worst jellyfish (fun) facts of the list. - Jellyfish stings can be deadly especially from the Australian box jellyfish (Chironex flecker,) considered the most venomous marine animal on earth.
- The sting of an Australian jellyfish can cause paralysis, cardiac arrest, and death within just a few minutes.
- Jellyfish have many predators like tunas, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles, and even some species of salmon.
Do you have any favorite jellyfish fun facts? Let me know in the comments if you would try and eat it!
Want more? Follow the link and read How Much Do You Know About Jellyfish.