There are 5 more species of "immortal jellyfish" !
Channel: Curious Kite
Date: 16/02/2021

Did you know that there were more than 1 species in JellyFish that showed signs of immortality? Find out more in our exciting new video !!

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Script: In the 1980s two students discovered something that will fascinate the scientific community even today.
As a part of their research, the students collected a hydrozoan which they thought to be as "Turritopsis nutricula"
They raised the Hydrozoan until they reached the medusa stage and then... forgot about them.
Later when they came back, they saw something spectacular.
They saw polyps on the floor of the container.
Now polyps are to adult JellyFish what caterpillars are to butterflies.
After carefully studying them, they found out that, adult medusa, when stressed were reverting back to polyps. It was like adult butterflies turning back into caterpillars. Further investigations by the scientific community, revealed that the species was not "Turritopsis nutricula" but turritopsis dohrnii. If you search for “immortal jellyfish” today on the internet, you will find hundreds and hundreds of articles about Torritopsis dohrnii. But that is not the whole story ....there are more of them. In 2011, on April 17, a Chinese student collected 2 specimens of moon jellyfish from Xiamen Bay.
The collected specimen were put in a 15x15 tank and were raised till they turned into a medusa. By September 2012, one of the adult medusa grew old and sank to the bottom of the tank, and stopped swimming.
The student transferred the adult medusa to another tank and again ...... forgot about it. But on November 23, 2012, by chance ....the student made a remarkable observation. A polyp rose from the degraded fragments of the adult medusa. It was like a Pheonix rising from its own ashes. ...and as of today.... almost 5 other species of Jellyfish were found to be displaying similar abilities. The story of immortality in living creatures doesn't end here. Hydra, a creature that looks straight out of science fiction.. shows signs of biological immortality. When cut in half, each portion can generate a genetically identical Hydra.......and consider the fascinating case of a lobster.. Yes, lobsters.. it was found that lobsters don't show signs of aging. In reverse, they grow stronger and more fertile as they age. However, as they grow larger ...lobsters usually suffer from shell diseases, which usually result in their deaths. Nature is the greatest inventor of all. 

Life has evolved many fascinating mechanisms to gain an upper hand in the battle for survival. Tune in to this channel to explore more such awe-inspiring mechanisms in nature.


Further reading/ References::
1. https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist/158-biologist/features/1510-everlasting-life-the-immortal-jellyfish
2. https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=the-jellyfish-that-never-dies



Attributions and credits ********************************
1. Background music - The awakening, patrick patrikios - Youtube audio library licence
2. BG music - Atlantis-Audionautrix: Atlantis by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
3. Beautiful jelly swimming - UNknown, please DM for credits.
4. Polyps: Matthias Jacob Schleiden 1804-1881, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
5. Adult medusa - Downloaded from Pixabey, no attribution required.
6. Caterpillar - Downloaded from Pixabey, no attribution required.
7. Butterfly - Downloaded from Pixabey, no attribution required.
8. Butterfly video - Downloaded from Pexels - no attribution required
9. Caterpillar video - Downloaded from Pexels - no attribution required
10. Turritopsis Dohrnii - Dr. Karen J. Osborn, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
11. Moon jelly swimming - Eric Kilby from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
12. China map- Pixabay download.
13. Pheonix - Bertuch-fabelwesen.JPG: Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch 1747–1822 derivative work: Tsaag Valren, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
14. Hydra - jpeg - Coveredinsevindust at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
15. Hydra 2: Corvana, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
16. Lobster video donwloaded from Pexels.
17. water sound - youtube audio library
18. Nautre, bees, bear - pexels
19. Jungle sound - youtube audio library.