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Are you also looking forward to a vacation to spend it at sea? No matter how much we love to carelessly splash in its waves, we should not forget that danger may be hidden in them. Namely, jellyfish - often cute, but mercilessly stinging. And although they consist almost entirely of water, the stinging cells of many of them contain poison, which is injected into the victim faster than a bullet flies. So it’s time to find out which jellyfish you shouldn’t approach even for the sake of beautiful picture and what to do if you do get stung.
We are in website chose 10 dangerous jellyfish, whose poison can provoke a serious allergic reaction and can even be dangerous to health and life. Hopefully you won't have to encounter any of these jellyfish. But caution won't hurt.
sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri)
This jellyfish is more agile than its relatives and more dangerous: while ordinary jellyfish react to light and swim with the flow, this one uses vision and decides where to swim. Its tentacles can reach 1.5 m in length, and its poison reserve is one sea wasp enough to kill 50 people.
Where it occurs: tropical seas of Australia and Oceania.
sea nettle (Chrysaora)
Typically, an individual reaches 30 cm in diameter, and its 24 tentacles can be up to 2 m long. The sea nettle's "sting" is extremely painful and leaves a rash and aching pain, but at least these jellyfish are not life-threatening.
Where it occurs: coast North America, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Irukandji (Carukia barnesi)
The jellyfish itself reaches only 15-20 mm in diameter, but its tentacles can be up to 35 cm long. Don't let its size and cuteness fool you: it is one of the most dangerous and poisonous jellyfish in the world, the consequences of contact with it even received a special name - Irukandji syndrome. A small amount of poison is enough to cause severe pain V different parts body, vomiting, spasms, burning skin, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure and acute heart failure.
Where it occurs: coasts of Australia and Oceania.
Lion's mane (Cyanea capillata)
A real giant jellyfish: the diameter of the dome can reach 2.5 m, and the tentacles can be 30 m in length. It’s not for nothing that it was nicknamed the lion’s mane for its beauty, but the tentacles of this sea creature leave a very painful burn, and the toxins in the poison can cause allergies in humans or kill small fish.
Where it occurs: in all northern seas Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Physalia (Physalia physalis)
The Portuguese man-of-war, also known as physalia, is not even a jellyfish, but a whole colony of polypoid and medusoid individuals. Under a small beautiful bubble are hidden very long “tentacles” - in fact, these are polyps covered with stinging cells with deadly dangerous poison. Their length can reach 10 m. Physalia move in groups of up to 100 colonies, and sometimes resorts have to close entire beaches because of them.
Where it occurs: tropical seas, but often appears in temperate seas.
Cornerots (Stomolophus meleagris)
The spherical dome of this jellyfish is somewhat reminiscent of a cannonball. In some countries, such as China, cornroots are even considered edible (after appropriate processing, of course). However, it should be remembered that the venom of this jellyfish contains toxins that can cause heart problems in people.
Where it occurs: midwest Atlantic Ocean, east-central and north-west Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean, Azov, Black and Red Seas.
Crosses (Gonionemus vertens)
The bell of this small jellyfish reaches only 80 mm, and a red-brown cross is visible on its body. She has a lot of tentacles that can stretch greatly. The crosses sting very painfully, but, fortunately, their “bites” are not fatal.
Where it occurs: coastal waters of China and California.
Jellyfish Alatinaalata
The largest individuals of this jellyfish are found in Pacific Ocean and reach 30 cm in length. Hawaiian individuals are smaller - up to 15 cm in length. These jellyfish also cause the deadly Irukandji syndrome, and the transparent dome makes them even more invisible in the water.
Where it occurs: between the Pacific, Atlantic and perhaps Indian Ocean, as well as on the coast of Pakistan.
Nomura (Nemopilema nomurai)
This is one of the largest jellyfish in the world: its diameter reaches 2 m, and it can weigh about 200 kg. Nomura are dangerous not only because they are poisonous, but they also damage fishing equipment. There is a known case when a fishing boat was sunk because of them: jellyfish clogged the nets, and the crew could not cope with them.
Where it occurs: Far Eastern seas of China, Japan, Korea and Russia.
Pelagia nocturnal (Pelagia noctiluca)
The jellyfish can emit light in short bursts and its colors range from pink and purple to gold. They are often washed up on beaches by waves, as they live near the shore. Although jellyfish are small (6-12 cm in dome diameter), they sting painfully, and their venom causes burning, inflammation, an allergic rash and leaves blisters.
Where it occurs: Mediterranean and Red Seas, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Creatures Sea inhabitants differ in shape, size, color and behavior. In populations sea creatures having impressive size, one of the leading places is occupied by the largest jellyfish in the world; the photo of this beauty is probably familiar to many.
Atlantic cyanea lives in temperate and cool waters of the Atlantic, Pacific Ocean and Arctic seas. Sometimes it can be seen off the coast of Australia. In warm water the jellyfish does not grow to large sizes or does not survive at all. But in the cold northern sea depths it reaches impressive sizes:
- main body – 2.5 meters;
- peculiar tentacles - 35 meters.
Appearance
Jellyfish is very beautiful. The outer part of the dome has a darkish tint, consisting of brown and dark red stains. The older the individual, the richer its body. Young cyanides have a bright orange color interspersed with brown shades.
The body of the jellyfish is divided into 8 parts, resembling petals in shape. Pink and purple tentacles are located in groups of 50 to 120 pieces along the border line of the petals. Each tentacle is equipped with a set of stinging cells, which gives it the ability to quickly kill its prey.
All the time the jellyfish hovers in the water, contracting the muscles of the dome and making occasional flapping movements with its wings located at the edges.
According to the researchers, the jellyfish is presented in several species, but no one was able to clarify their number; disputes continue to this day. On this moment Blue and Japanese cyanides have been studied, but they are much smaller in size than the Atlantic.
Reproduction
The cyanea jellyfish is female and male. Males in mating season They fertilize females through water. Sperm released from the oral passages swim into openings on the female’s body, intended for bearing offspring. The finished larvae spend several days swimming freely, after which they attach to the substrate. From this moment their growth begins. With the arrival of spring, they detach and swim away to feed on their own. The babies look like stars with a transparent body and the absence of marginal tentacles. In summer, cyanea fry form into fully developed jellyfish.
Nutrition
Cyanea belongs to the species of predators. The jellyfish keeps its numerous tentacles spread out, forming a trapping net. The creatures hunt plankton and fish fry. The largest jellyfish in the world has a genetic predisposition to cannibalism - it can eat small relatives; a photo of developed tentacles indicates the ability to instantly kill small prey and cause serious damage to large animals.
The largest jellyfish in the world, a photo of which will help you recognize it when you meet it, is not particularly dangerous for humans. The maximum harm that cyanea can cause is a burn that goes away quickly, and allergic reaction on toxic substances, injected upon bite. No deaths have been recorded after an encounter with a jellyfish.
Greek heroes turned to stone under the gaze of the mythical witch Medusa the Gorgon. Will the real and largest jellyfish in the world, the Arctic cyanea, make you freeze in shock? This floating nightmare has a bell two meters in diameter and extends its tentacles up to 30 meters! Find out the truth about giant jellyfish, their size and lifestyle, and your chances of encountering them in the wild.
First place: Arctic cyanide - the longest animal on the planet
The owner of the longest body prefers the cold waters of the White, Kara and Barents Seas, although he often descends to the latitudes of Boston and northern Portugal. In 1870, residents of one of the villages on the shores of Massachusetts Bay went out to collect fish left on the sand after a storm and discovered a gigantic jellyfish thrown up by the sea.
Animal measurements showed:
- 7.5 feet (2.3 m) - bell span;
- 120 feet (36.6 m) - length of tentacles;
- 121.4 feet (37 m) - total length from crown to tentacle tips.
Even the blue whale does not reach the cyanea record of 3.5 m!
What does a giant jellyfish look like and what does it eat?
The dome of the cyanide, shimmering with a greenish light, is colored burgundy closer to the edges and is divided into 16 lobes. Numerous tentacles of the animal stretch behind the dome in a sloppy pink trail. Thanks to them, the jellyfish received a second name - hairy.
For a person, an encounter with the Arctic giant is fraught with painful burns. National geographical society The United States considers cyanea potentially fatal, although death from its poison has only been recorded once.
Second place: Nomura Bell - the yellow giant from the Yellow Sea
Kanihi Nomura, a zoologist and at the same time director of fisheries in the Japanese prefecture of Fukui, puzzled by the clogging of nets with jellyfish, found and described this species in 1921. The animal resembles a lump of tangled fibers from the central part of a pumpkin fruit, hanging from a two-meter bell. The second name of the giant is lion's mane.
Nomura's tentacles are small, but the mass of one specimen reaches 200 kg. In 2009, a fishing boat capsized off the coast of Japan while the crew was struggling with nomura that had filled the net. The efforts of fishermen to throw the lion's mane out of the nets end sadly: numerous tentacles always find a small strip of exposed skin, even on a person dressed in a marine robe.
How the bell burns Nomura and his brothers
Jellyfish are slow and clumsy, and it is difficult for them to hold on to their caught prey. So you have to act with paralyzing poison, grow stinging cells with a coiled harpoon thread inside. When a crustacean or fish touches a tiny protrusion near such a cell, the thread instantly shoots out, pierces the side and injects poison.
Jellyfish toxins have been little studied, but it has been established that one of their components is histamine, which is responsible for a severe allergic reaction. Other substances in the poison affect the nervous system, paralyzing small plankton and causing severe pain in marine mammals and man.
Third place: Chrysaora – a gentle and fiery beauty
Chrysaora has chosen the eastern and western shelves of the North American continent. Its dome reaches a meter in diameter and is sand-colored with dark radial stripes. 24 thin stinging tentacles up to 5 m long hang from the edges of the dome. Around the mouth, located on the underside of the dome, 4 more tentacles grow, lush, like a feather boa. All together it resembles a lady's hat with ribbons.
The second name of the underwater beauty is sea nettle. Like the plant of the same name, chrysaora burns sharply and painfully, but not for long. Within an hour, the burning and itching stop, and the next day the redness goes away.
How chrysaors migrate
There is an opinion that jellyfish swim only with the flow. However, they easily move wherever they want, collecting water under the dome and throwing it out with strong pushes. This method of movement is called reactive.
Chrysaors make multi-day sea voyages in search of prey: comb jellyfish and plankton. Sometimes they gather in clusters of tens of thousands of individuals - zoologists call this phenomenon a “swarm” or “bloom”. Why chrysaors behave this way remains to be studied.
Fourth place: purple striped jellyfish
This rare creature lives off the coast of California. The diameter of its bell reaches 70 cm, the length of its thin marginal tentacles is 2 m. In its youth, the jellyfish is colorless, it is decorated with barely visible dark stripes and an edging along the edge of the dome. As they age, the stripes turn bright brown, and the jellyfish itself takes on a rich blueberry color.
The burns caused by the purple striped jellyfish are not fatal, but unpleasant, like a lash. In 2012, 130 beachgoers on Monterey Bay were injured after encountering a large group of young, and therefore difficult to see, animals in the water.
Why is the body of a jellyfish transparent?
The jellyfish has none internal organ. Their flesh consists of two rows of cells, between them is a thick layer of gelatinous substance, which is 98% water. The jellyfish seems to be made of liquid glass.
Cells share all the work of the body among themselves. Some produce toxins, others digest prey, and others are responsible for sensitivity. There are cells whose responsibilities include the prompt restoration of body parts bitten off by turtles and other predators. But since there are only two layers of cells, the general outlines of objects can be seen through the jellyfish.
Fifth place: Black Sea Cornerot
For the Mediterranean and Black Seas this is the most major representative jellyfish The diameter of the bell reaches 60 cm, weight – 10 kg. Kornerot does not have the long hunting tentacles characteristic of Chrysaora or Cyanea. There are small oral lobes that resemble young roots of well-fed seedlings.
Cornerotes are hardly noticeable, since on their transparent, colorless body there is only one colored area - the purple edging of the dome. Bathers discover the jellyfish when they touch the floating jelly. For most people, this animal is safe, and only severe allergy sufferers react to its soft touch with a scattering of hives.
Can a jellyfish feel?
Sight, hearing, taste - this is not about jellyfish. Too primitive nervous system. However, sailors have long noticed that before a storm, cornermouths disappear, moving away from the shore.
It turned out that along the edges of the dome the animals carry tubes with lime crystals. In response to infrasounds that appear in the sea 10-15 hours before the storm, the crystals begin to move and touch microscopic sensitive tubercles.
They perceive this signal nerve cells. Now sailors are armed with the “jellyfish ear” device, which notifies in advance of the approach of bad weather.
The world's largest jellyfish, the cyanea jellyfish, and its smaller sisters are some of the most beautiful inhabitants of the ocean. They have been dancing slowly and mysteriously in the salt water for hundreds of millions of years. During this time, they acquired delicate colors, burning poisons and the finest hearing. But zoologists are sure that not all the secrets of transparent beauties have been revealed.
The largest jellyfish in the entire world's oceans, the arctic cyanide (lat. Cyanea capillata) became widely known thanks to the story “ Lion's mane"by Arthur Conan Doyle, which told about the painful death of one of the heroes caused by an encounter with Arctic cyanide.
In fact, rumors about her mortal danger too exaggerated for humans. Arctic cyanide not only cannot cause fatal outcome, but is not even able to cause any serious damage to human health. The worst consequences of contact with this jellyfish are an itchy rash and, in some cases, an allergic reaction. All this can be successfully treated with compresses with vinegar.
Nevertheless, arctic cyanides- very interesting sea creatures. Let's start with the fact that cyanea live in extremely harsh climatic conditions. They can be found in the waters of the Arctic Ocean and in northern regions Pacific Ocean at its coldest winter months. They rarely fall below forty-two degrees northern latitude and are completely absent from the waters of the southern hemisphere.
Arctic cyanides can reach truly huge size. These are not only the largest of all jellyfish, but also the largest animals in the world. The diameter of one of the jellyfish, found in 1870 off the coast of Massachusetts, exceeded two meters, and the length of the tentacles reached thirty-six meters. It is believed that the cyanea bell can grow up to two and a half meters in diameter, and the tentacles can grow up to forty-five meters in length. This is much larger than the blue whale, the largest animal on the planet.
The further north the Arctic cyanide lives, the larger it is. The most impressive sizes are those of jellyfish that live in the coldest areas of the Arctic Ocean. As they approach warmer waters, the size of Arctic cyanides decreases: the smallest jellyfish are found between forty and forty-second degrees north latitude.
Typically, the diameter of the Arctic cyanide bell does not exceed two and a half meters. The length of these tentacles arctic jellyfish also changes depending on the temperature of their habitat, and color depends on size. The largest specimens impress with rich crimson-red tones, while smaller ones are characterized by shades of pink, orange or light brown.
The body of the Arctic cyanide is a bell with blades along the edges, shaped like a hemisphere. Long tentacles, collected in eight bundles, are attached to the inner part of the blades. Each such bundle grows from sixty to one hundred and thirty tentacles. In the center of the bell there is a mouth opening, surrounded by long oral lobes, with the help of which the arctic cyanea moves the caught prey towards the mouth, connected to the stomach.
Like most jellyfish, the arctic cyanide is a voracious predator, feeding on zooplankton, small fish and ctenophores. She does not deny herself the pleasure of feasting on her relatives, such as, for example, the long-eared aurelia. In turn, Arctic cyanides are desirable prey for seabirds, large fish, sea turtles and other jellyfish.
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that you are discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
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The marine environment is fundamentally different from ours. This world is fraught with many creatures that go beyond the ideas of ordinary things. Take, for example, a jellyfish... This oldest species has existed on the planet for more than 600 million years, and some specimens have learned to grow to incredible sizes.
Hairy cyanea
The largest jellyfish in the world is the hairy cyanide. It is found everywhere in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but the largest specimens are found in the Arctic. The reason for this is the lack of food in cold water, which leads to late puberty and, accordingly, gigantism of the individual.
Many people have seen this photo on the Internet. It certainly depicts a cyanea, but the ratio of a person and a jellyfish is corrected here with Photoshop. The largest jellyfish in the world washed up on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1870. Its length was 36.5 meters, and the diameter of the bell was 2.3 meters.
In this regard, cyanea rightfully also bears the title “the longest jellyfish in the world” and is considered the longest animal on the planet, since its main competitor is blue whale reaches only 33 meters.
What else is it called
Its other names are arctic cyanea or lion's mane. This is a disc jellyfish (octagonal in shape), opaque. Translated from Latin, its name means “blue hairy jellyfish,” although in adulthood it is more colorful - brown, red and yellowish tones predominate in it. But young cyanea is usually orange.
Common specimens have a diameter of about 2 meters and a length of tentacles of about 20. The body of the jellyfish is an inverted bell with blades. Tentacles emerge from its inner part, of which the cyanea has a lot - at each corner of the dome, up to 150 pieces are arranged in a row, which do not retract inward, but are always ready to bite into the victim. In the center there is a mouth, which is also an excretory opening. And jellyfish move in a reactive manner.
Habitats
Cyanea lives in surface waters at depths up to 20 meters. This is a predator that uses its tentacles as a trapping net, where a rather strong poison awaits the victim at the ends of the stinging cells. For small fish it is fatal, but for larger animals it leaves greater damage.
In humans, the largest jellyfish in the world's oceans can cause allergies and burns, but not death. The story “The Lion's Mane” by Conan Doyle, where two people die when they touch it, is a work of fiction.
And besides, it’s rare that a diver will swim in the Arctic without a wetsuit to protect him from the cold. It is interesting that when it gets to more southern latitudes, cyanea will never grow more than half a meter. When encountering it in warm waters without protective equipment, it is enough for a person to wipe the area of contact with vinegar.
The life cycle of this jellyfish is quite unique. It consists of polypoid (attached to the bottom) and medusoid types.
Reproduction of jellyfish
Males spit out mature sperm through their mouths into the sea, where they enter the females’ mouth lobes. After a few days, the larva degenerates into a polyp, which first attaches itself to stones or plants. It will grow, eat, and may even reproduce by budding (asexually). And in the spring, the transformation is completed by the jellyfish larva, which sets off into free swimming as a small octagonal star.
Jellyfish hunt in groups - this makes it easier for them to surround plankton or a school of fish. Cannibalism is common among this type of jellyfish - on occasion, a large jellyfish can swallow a smaller relative. Natural enemies cyanides - turtles, birds and large fish they will never miss such a tasty piece of prey.
You can learn even more about jellyfish from the video below the article. Be sure to look at this majestic beauty...
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