The world is a strange place. The people are weird, the art is weirder and the animals are the weirdest. Out of all the unusual animals of the world, some stick out just a bit more than others. In this case, let's talk about jellyfish and why they're just absurd.
1. One species is actually immortal.
Scientists have discovered a species of jellyfish that can avoid death. The so called "Immortal Jellyfish" (or the turritopsis dohrnii for those who care) can actually revert from its adult life stage back into its polyp stage. This is equivalent to you being a full grown adult and then reverting back to being a newborn (pretty much what college makes you want to do). There is no limit on how many times the jellyfish can do this, and so scientists have dubbed it "immortal."
2. Jellyfish can make clones of themselves.
If for some odd reason you were to cut a jellyfish, a complete copy of the jellyfish would arise from its limb, so in a sense you'd actually be doing it a favor. This ability of regeneration allows an injured jellyfish to produce thousands of copies of itself before it dies. The clone jellyfish also have the ability to make more clones. Essentially, jellyfish have honed the ability to carry on a legacy.
3. Some jellyfish have eyes but no brains.
Your eyes send images to your brain which then processes the images and makes sense of them, giving you a clear picture. Without the occipital lobe of your brain, your eyes would be helpless. Most jellyfish are sightless, however a few species have eyes. In fact, the box jellyfish has a whopping 24 eyes, but no brain. So how does it do it? The eyes actually communicate with each other and the primitive nervous system of the jellyfish in order to produce shadowy images. Somehow the jellyfish manages to bypass the need for a brain. Scientists are still trying to understand how this strange system works
4. They come in all shapes and sizes.
Jellyfish are very diverse, especially in size. Not including the tentacles, a jellyfish can be anywhere from two millimeters to two meters long, depending on the species. Humans lack this size variation. You don't see a 100-foot-tall man just walking around and then turn around and step on a 1-inch-tall man. This size variation is specifically unique to jellyfish and uncommon in the animal kingdom.
5. Jellyfish are 95 percent water.
While humans are about 60 percent water, jellyfish are 95 percent water (basically, they're undersea watermelons). They lack both a skeletal and muscular system and instead rely on being soft and squishy for protection. Jellyfish bodies are so delicate that when removed from water, they will collapse on themselves and die. Due to their lack of form, jellyfish are often mistaken for plastic bags floating in the ocean. Unfortunately for humans, this often leads to stings, and then to embarrassing moments like in "Friends".
6. Some jellyfish can glow in the dark.
A species known as the crystal jellyfish can actually glow in the dark. These jellyfish produce a strange protein known as GFP that glows in low-light environments. This protein is actually being used in the medical field to help track cancer cells, and to treat AIDS in cats. So maybe jellies are good for something after all?
7). Jellyfish only have one opening.
Wouldn't it suck if your mouth and butt were the same thing? For the amount of shit some people talk, you'd think it was that way for them! Under the bell, the jellyfish equivalent of a head, lies its mouth. This mouth gobbles up zooplankton along with other microscopic organisms and then later spews waste products from the same opening. Unfortunately for the jellyfish, its butt and mouth share the same hole (at least it can't taste).
