Big jellyfish. The lion's mane jellyfish is the largest jellyfish in the world. Description and appearance of cyanide

The largest hairy cyanide known today washed ashore in Massachusetts Bay in 1870. The length of her torso (bells) was 2.3 meters, and the length of her tentacles was 37 meters, which is more than the size of blue whales.

Hairy cyanide (lat. Cyanea capillata) is the largest species of jellyfish, belonging to the type of ciding and scyphoid. Also known as the Lion's Mane, this jellyfish gets its name from its huge mass of tangled tentacles that resemble a lion's mane.

This is a very large animal and many ocean dwellers such as shrimp and small fish can live in the hairy part of the jellyfish, thus providing themselves with security and regular food.

Habitat

Hairy cyanide is found in the North Atlantic, as well as in the waters of the Pacific Ocean near Australia. In addition, they live on the shores of Great Britain, Norway and the United States. They are most commonly found in the colder regions of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as they find it difficult to survive in warmer waters.

Description

The tentacles of this jellyfish can have different lengths. The hairy cyanide has 8 bundles of tentacles, the number of which in each bundle varies from 70 to 150. These tentacles are very sticky and have a silvery-white color, which is typical for the species of subumbrella jellyfish with an inwardly concave bell.

The bell of the hairy cyanide is divided into eight parts with bright sleeves coming out from the center of this bell. With age, the color of the bell changes and becomes brighter. In large individuals, the color varies from dark red to purple, in smaller individuals, from orange to bronze.

These jellyfish are often bioluminescent, which means they emit their own light. Thus, they glow in dark waters.

Habitat and behavior

Hairy cyanide lives in cold waters and cannot survive in warm water. These jellyfish spend most of their lives in the waters of the ocean, but at the end of their lives they most often move to shallow water.

Hairy cyanide does not descend to a depth of more than 20 meters and can move in a vertical direction. However, the distance they cover depends on ocean currents and wind. A large number of individuals can be observed during the summer and autumn periods, when the oceans abound with food.

Life cycle

Like all other jellyfish, hairy cyanide can reproduce sexually and asexually (at the polyp stage) in ways.

They go through 4 different life stages, each one a year after the previous one: larval stage (1), polyp stage (2), ethereal stage (3) and medusa stage (4).

The female jellyfish carries the fertilized eggs in her tentacles, where they grow into larvae. Once the larvae are mature enough, the female places them on a hard surface where they move on to the next stage, the polyp stage. The polyps then reproduce asexually, leading to the formation of esters. After that, the ethers break through and enter the medusa stage on their own, eventually growing into an adult.

Sting and human contact

The hairy cyanide has stingers on its tentacles that help it catch prey such as zooplankton, seabirds, large fish, sea turtles, and other jellyfish.

The sting of a jellyfish causes temporary pain and redness in a person. However, the bite of this jellyfish is not fatal. Symptoms include rash, itching, blistering, and muscle cramps. Some people are said to have an allergic reaction, and in the worst cases, its bite leads to a change in heart rate and breathing problems.

The contact of a jellyfish with people was recorded on July 21, 2010, when 150 people were stung by a 20-kilogram dead hairy cyanide, which was torn into several pieces in Wallis Sands State Park in New Hampshire (USA). Given the size of this species, it is believed that this was an isolated case in one individual.

Another curious reference to the hairy jellyfish is associated with the Sherlock Holmes story "The Lion's Mane". At the end of the story, Holmes discovers that the school professor actually died after being bitten by a hairy jellyfish. Initially, the suspect in the murder was the professor's rival in love affairs, who was also attacked by a jellyfish, after which he still managed to survive. But the professor had a weak heart, which led to his death.

Vinegar helps to reduce the pain from the bite of this jellyfish.

• Some larval stage jellyfish manage to survive the harsh winter and then feed off during the summer months as the warm weather encourages plankton growth. They are known to breed during the spring period.
• They begin to feed near the surface of the water. Then the jellyfish go deep into the water, where they spread their tentacles in the form of a wide network. This network is very difficult to notice, so the surrounding inhabitants easily fall into a trap.
• On the tentacles of these jellyfish there are poisonous stings: this poison is enough to hit a person. Thanks to these tentacles, food floats directly into the jellyfish's mouth.
• The stings of a jellyfish remain poisonous even a few days after its death. The detached tentacles can get stuck, for example, in fishing nets, and, as a result, sting the fishermen.

Video

It is no secret that each group of vertebrates (phylum, class, family, genus) has its own champions for certain achievements. Invertebrates do not lag behind them, because among them there are also those who can be envied! One such creature is the giant cyanide jellyfish.

Giant in the sea

The hairy cyanide is the largest jellyfish in the world. This is a real giant of the seas and oceans. Its full name is Cuanea arctica, which in Latin sounds like "jellyfish. This beautifully glowing pink-purple creature can be found in the high latitudes of the northern jellyfish. It is common in all northern seas flowing into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. You can see it directly near shores, in the upper layers of water.Researchers who studied hairy cyanide initially looked for it in the Azov and Black Seas, but never found it.

Medusa cyanide. Impressive dimensions

According to the latest oceanographic studies, which are cited by members of the expedition of the so-called Cousteau team, the diameter of the gelatinous "body" (or dome) of cyanide can reach 2.5 m. But what's more! The pride of the hairy arctic jellyfish is its tentacles. The length of these processes ranges from 26 to 42 m! Scientists have come to the conclusion that the size of these jellyfish depends entirely on the conditions of their habitat. According to statistics, it is precisely the individuals that inhabit the coldest oceanic waters that have huge sizes.

External structure

The hairy jellyfish cyanide has a rather diverse coloration of its body. It is dominated by brown, purple and red tones. When the jellyfish becomes an adult, its dome ("body") begins to distinctly turn yellow on top, and its edges turn red. The tentacles located along the edges of the dome have a purple-pink hue, and the oral lobes are red-crimson. It is because of the long tentacles that the cyanide was called the hairy (or hairy) jellyfish. The dome itself, or bell, of the Arctic cyanide has a hemispherical structure. Its edges smoothly pass into 16 blades, which, in turn, are separated from each other by specific cutouts.

Lifestyle

These creatures spend the lion's share of their numerous time in the so-called free swimming - they hover on the surfaces of sea waters, periodically reducing their gelatinous dome and flapping their extreme blades. Hairy cyanide is a predator, and a very active one. It feeds on plankton floating in the surface layers of water, crustaceans and small fish. In especially “hungry years”, when there is literally nothing to eat, cyanide can starve for a long time. But in some cases, these creatures become cannibals, devouring their own relatives.

Members of Cousteau's team describe in their research the method of hunting that the jellyfish uses. Hairy cyanide rises to the surface of the water, spreading its long tentacles in different directions. She is waiting for her prey. The researchers noticed that in this state, cyanide very much resembles. Once the victim swims closer to such “algae” and touches them, the jellyfish immediately wraps them around their prey, releasing into it with the help of the so-called poison that can paralyze. As soon as the prey ceases to show signs of life, the jellyfish eats it. The poison of this gelatinous giant is quite strong and is produced along the entire length of the tentacles.

reproduction

This creature reproduces in a very unusual way. The male ejects his sperm through the mouth into the female's mouth. As a matter of fact, that's all. It is in the mouth of the female jellyfish that the formation of embryos occurs. When the "babies" grow up, they will come out in the form of larvae. These larvae, in turn, will attach to the substrate, turning into a single polyp. After a few months, the grown polyp will begin to multiply, after which the larvae of future jellyfish will appear.

Until now, the largest Arctic cyanide caught, officially registered in documents, is a creation thrown out in 1870 on the coast of a bay in the American. The diameter of the dome of this giant was 2.3 m, and the length of the tentacles was 36.5 m. it is known about the existence of specimens with a gelatinous body diameter of up to 2.5 m and a tentacle length of 42 m. Such jellyfish were recorded using a scientific underwater bathyscaphe as part of oceanological expeditions, but so far no one has managed to catch at least one such individual.

The cyanide jellyfish is known among divers for its painful burn. Officially, the world's largest jellyfish is considered dangerous to humans. But in fact, only one death was recorded. As a rule, such a burn leaves a local reddening on the skin of a person, which disappears for some time. Sometimes rashes appear on the body, accompanied by painful sensations. And all because the giant's venom contains toxins that can cause an allergic reaction. However, if you've been stung by the giant cyanide jellyfish, it's a good idea to see a doctor.

Did you know that the largest jellyfish lives in the Arctic? This monster has an incredible size. The diameter of its body reaches three meters, and the length of the tentacles is 36 meters. This is the Arctic cyanide, which, in terms of size, is the undisputed leader among scyphoid jellyfish, which also include blue and Japanese. The Latin name for this creature is Cyanea capillata, which translates as blue hair. Because of such long tentacles, the jellyfish is sometimes called the lion's mane.

This creature lives in the cold Arctic waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Medium-sized individuals sometimes appear off the Australian coast. The largest jellyfish are found only in the Arctic. In warm water, the jellyfish does not grow more than half a meter in diameter. Most likely, there are some reasons for this.

Cyanea is heterogeneous in color. Her body can be brown, red, yellow. Sometimes all these colors are mixed with each other, giving the jellyfish a certain originality. Her tentacles can be either purple or pink. In young individuals, the colors are always lighter and brighter. In shape, the jellyfish resembles an eight-pointed star, from which eight groups of tentacles depart, 150 each.

The Arctic jellyfish can be either female or male. Fertilization of the female occurs in a non-contact way. The male throws into the water through the mouth opening a seed capsule with spermatozoa, which, when meeting with the female, again through the mouth, penetrate into her genitals, where fertilization occurs, with the further appearance of larvae. Through the brood paths of the females, they enter the water, where they swim freely for several days in search of a substrate to which they must attach. As soon as this happens, the larva moves to the next stage of its development, transforming into a scyphist. The most interesting thing is that the scyphistoma can share. In science, this method of asexual reproduction is called strobilation. As a result, the larvae of jellyfish, called ethers, are separated from the scyphist. They freely roam the ocean, gradually turning into real jellyfish.

Arctic cyanide is a predator. During the hunt, she rises to the surface layers of the water, straightens and stretches her tentacles in length, forming something similar to a fishing net. The ends of the tentacles are equipped with stinging cells that contain poison. Getting into the body of the victim, it paralyzes marine life. In addition, the tentacles of the jellyfish are covered with sticky mucus, to which small sea creatures stick. The jellyfish feeds on fish and plankton.

For a person, a jellyfish is not particularly dangerous, of course, if you do not touch it with your hands. If jellyfish venom gets on the body, an allergic reaction may occur, and nothing more. This, of course, is unpleasant, but not fatal.

The largest species among jellyfish is cyanide. These jellyfish reach their largest sizes in the cold waters of the northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Therefore, they are also called giant arctic jellyfish.

The largest specimen is an arctic jellyfish washed ashore in Massachusetts Bay in 1870. The diameter of its dome was about 2.3 meters, and the length of the tentacles reached 36.5 meters. It turned out to be longer than the blue whale, which is considered the largest animal on the planet.

Now this jellyfish, but already smaller, can be found in the warmer waters of New Zealand and Australia. The "southern" specimens grow up to about 50 cm in dome diameter, while the "northern" specimens can reach 2 meters. The sticky thread-like tentacles of the jellyfish are collected in 8 groups, each of which contains from 65 to 150 tentacles.

The color of a jellyfish depends on its size. Small individuals have a flesh or pale orange color, and large ones are bright pink or purple.

On the tentacles, like most jellyfish, there are stinging cells with a strong poison. For a person, it does not pose a mortal danger, but a tentacle burn can be very painful. But the poison calmly kills small animals and fish. Over the entire period of its life, a giant Arctic jellyfish can eat about 15 thousand fish.

The process of their reproduction makes you break your head a little. These jellyfish reproduce both sexually and asexually, like polyps. Cyanea males eject sperm through their mouths. Then nimble spermatozoa penetrate into special chambers located in the oral lobes of the females, where the eggs are fertilized and further developed.

After maturation, the larvae leave the capsules and go free swimming for several days. Along the way, they attach themselves to various corals and turn into solitary polyps, which then begin to feed intensively and increase in size. After maturation, the next stage of reproduction occurs - budding. The formation of jellyfish larvae begins. This is how small jellyfish are born, which then turn into giant arctic jellyfish.

Since September 2008, an invasion of giant jellyfish has been observed off the coast of the island of Honshu. They poisoned all the fish that came across in the net. As a result, Japanese fishermen suffered great financial losses.

In this article, we will introduce you to the largest representative of the jellyfish family - the lion's mane jellyfish or, as it is also called, the giant arctic jellyfish.

Some representatives of this species have a bell size of almost two meters. The habitat of these creatures is the cool waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, in addition, it can be found in the Baltic and North seas. A lot of giant arctic jellyfish have chosen the east coast of Great Britain as their habitat.

The body of the lion's mane jellyfish is 94 percent water. She has a bell, consisting of two layers of fabric, hemispherical in shape, the edges of which are curly. In addition, the bell is divided into parts, there are eight of them in total. There are recesses at the base of each lobe. In these lobes are the sense organs of the jellyfish. These are the sense of smell and light receptors.

As a rule, the diameter of the bell is from 30 to 80 cm, but there were individual individuals whose bell diameter reached 180 cm.

The color of the bell can be different, for example, pink, red-gold or brown-purple. At the bottom of the umbrella is the mouth of a jellyfish, surrounded around the perimeter by a fringe of small tentacles. In addition, the giant arctic jellyfish has eight groups of tentacles, each of which has 150 of them. They contain highly effective nematocysts. The largest representatives of this species have tentacles up to 20 meters long.

The lion's mane jellyfish has both male and female specimens. In both those and others, a kind of bag is located on the wall of the stomach, which contains, depending on the sex of the individual, spermatozoa or eggs. When the spermatozoa mature, they are released into the water through the male's mouth opening, and then in the same way - through the mouth - they enter the female's body and fertilize the egg.

Until the larvae hatch, the development of the eggs takes place in the tentacles of the female. After the larvae hatch, they settle to the bottom, where their further development takes place, the next stage of which are polyps. In the process of their growth, small appendages are separated from them, from which, in the end, jellyfish grow, which, in turn, repeat this entire cycle.

Giant arctic jellyfish are not at rest for a minute, they are constantly moving, while they can reach a decent speed of several kilometers per hour, which allows them to travel long distances. In addition, sea currents help them navigate the expanses of water. There have been cases of a large accumulation of this species of jellyfish in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway.