There's no such thing as a jellyfish

By all accounts, jellyfish are creatures that kill people, eat microbes, grow to tens of meters, filter phytoplankton, take over ecosystems, and live forever. Because of the immense diversity of gelatinous plankton, jelly-like creatures can individually have each of these properties. However this way of looking at them both overstates and underestimates their true diversity. Taxonomically, they are far more varied than a handful of exemplars that are used to represent jellyfish or especially the so-called "true" jellyfish. Ecologically, they are even more adaptable than one would expect by looking only at the conspicuous bloom forming families and species that draw most of the attention. In reality, the most abundant and diverse gelatinous groups in the ocean are not the ones that anyone ever sees.

To report sightings of jellyfish and other marine organisms, go to http://jellywatch.org/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Jellyfish
• Steve Haddock
• MBARI
• Jellywatch

[Simpsonsfreak1134]

There's also no such thing as a fish. Biologically speaking a salmon has more in common with a camel then it does with hagfish.

[sayhello2harley]

They're all so pretty ;O

[caligula6668]

anyone else think of metroids?

[thetrollofAWheavy]

4:24 it's a sea-bat!

[NazerathSypnos]

Whoa.

[Ravengaurd6]

3:31 O HELL NAW! that looks like a helix!

[NeonToons]

That one with the strobing colored lights just blows my mind. How crazy is our world that we have fish that have adapted to strobe colored lights underwater? Science is so awesome.

[dennisisamuffinguy]

I LOVE SCIENCE

[adam4malkovich]

makes me want to play spore so bad.

[TheOtherNeutrino]

U JELLY... FISH?

[Acas4ForReal]

...One more reason why i wont swim anymore

[Omnywrench]

@celinocaliente2002

7 trees saw a christian and disliked this video.