The largest jellyfish in the world. Arctic cyanea - the largest animal on earth

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 figured. In addition, the bell is divided into parts, there are eight in total. There are depressions at the base of each lobe. These lobes contain the sense organs of the jellyfish. These are the sense of smell and light receptors.

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

The color of the bell can be different, for example, pink, red-golden or brown-violet. At the bottom of the umbrella is the mouth of a jellyfish, surrounded along the entire perimeter by a fringe of small tentacles. In addition, the giant Arctic jellyfish has eight groups of tentacles, each with 150 tentacles. They contain very 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 species. Both of them have a kind of bag on the stomach wall, which contains, depending on the sex of the individual, sperm or eggs. When sperm mature, they are released into the water through the male’s mouth, and then in the same way - through the mouth - they enter the female’s body and fertilize the egg.

Until the larvae hatch, egg development occurs in the female's tentacles. After the larvae hatch, they settle to the bottom, where they further develop, the next stage of which is polyps. In the process of their growth, small appendages are separated from them, from which, ultimately, jellyfish grow, which, in turn, repeat this entire cycle.

Giant Arctic jellyfish are never at rest for a minute; they are constantly moving, and they can reach a decent speed of several kilometers per hour, which allows them to cover long distances. In addition, sea currents help them navigate the waters. There have been cases of large concentrations of this type of jellyfish in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway.

• Type: Cnidaria (Coelenterata) Hatschek, 1888 = Coelenterates, cnidarians
• Subphylum: Medusozoa = Jellyfish-producing
• Class: Scyphozoa Götte, 1887 = Scyphozoa
• Order: Semaeostomeae = Discomedousae
• Genus: Cyanea = Arctic cyanea
• Species: Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758) = Hairy cyanea (giant arctic jellyfish; lion's mane jellyfish)

Hairy or arctic cyanea (Cyanea capillata, synonym - C. arctica) is a species of scyphoid from the order of disc jellyfish, in which the jellyfish stage reaches very large sizes. The Arctic cyanea is the largest jellyfish in the World Ocean. In large specimens, which are not found very often, the diameter of the dome can reach 2 m, while the tentacles of such unique specimens can stretch up to 20 m. Moreover, the largest jellyfish had tentacles 36.5 meters long, with an umbrella diameter of almost 2.3 meters . But usually most cyanea grow no more than 50-60 cm. This species also has another very interesting name: Lion's mane jellyfish

Hairy cyanea has a wide range: it can be found in almost all northern seas of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. At the same time, cyanea is found only in the surface layers of water and does not float far from the shores. This disc jellyfish is not found in warmer seas, such as the Black and Azov Seas.

The body of Arctic cyanide can have a variety of colors, but red and brown tones usually predominate in it. The upper part of the dome in adult specimens is yellowish, and its edges are usually red. The oral lobes of cyanea are raspberry-red. The marginal tentacles are usually light in color, pink and purple. Unlike adults, young individuals are much brighter in color.

The edges of the cyanea bell, which has a hemispherical shape, are transformed into 16 blades separated from each other by cutouts. At the same time, at the base of these notches are the marginal bodies of the rhopalia, which contain sensory organs such as vision (in the form of eyes) and balance - their role is played by statocysts. The marginal tentacles are long, they are attached to the inner concave side of the dome under the lobes between the rhopalia. The marginal tentacles are collected in 8 bundles. The mouth opening is located in the center of the lower part of the dome. It is surrounded by large, folded oral lobes hanging down like curtains. The digestive system is quite branched. Its radial canals extend from the stomach, then enter the oral and marginal lobes of the bell, where they form additional branches.

In its life cycle, cyanea has a succession of two generations: sexual and asexual. The sexual or medusoid generation leads an active lifestyle and lives in the water column, while individuals of the asexual polypoid generation lead an attached bottom lifestyle.

Jellyfish of the sexual generation cyanea are dioecious. Reproduction occurs as follows. Cyana males release mature sperm into the water through their mouth. From here they penetrate into the brood chambers of females, which are located in the oral lobes, where fertilization of the eggs occurs, and then their further development. Motile planula larvae emerging from fertilized eggs leave the female's brood chambers. They swim in the water column for several days, and then, having chosen a suitable place, attach to the substrate. After this, the larva transforms into a single polyp, which is called a scyphistoma. At this stage, the polyp actively feeds, due to which it increases in size. It, by budding daughter scyphistomas from itself, can thus reproduce asexually. In the spring, the process of strobilation or transverse division of the scyphistoma occurs, as a result of which active larvae of ethereal jellyfish are formed. In appearance, they resemble transparent stars with eight rays. At this stage of development, they do not have marginal tentacles and oral lobes. The ethers break away from the mother scyphistoma and float away, and by mid-summer they gradually turn into jellyfish.

Cyanean jellyfish most of the time float freely in the near-surface layer of ocean water, periodically contracting their dome and flapping their edge blades. At the same time, the numerous tentacles of the jellyfish are straightened and extended to their full length. Cyaneas are predators, so their long tentacles, densely packed with stinging cells, form a dense trapping network under the dome. When the stinging cells are fired, a strong poison penetrates the victim's body, as a result of which small aquatic animals die, and significant damage to the body is caused to larger ones. The main prey of cyanides are various planktonic organisms, including other jellyfish.

The Arctic cyanide jellyfish is also dangerous for humans, since its tentacles can inflict very painful burns on careless divers. Basically, the burn leaves only local redness on the body of the stung person, which goes away over time, but one death has also been recorded...

It is no secret that each group of vertebrate animals (phylum, class, family, genus) has its own record holders for certain achievements. Invertebrates are not far behind them, because among them there are also those who can be envied! One of these creatures is the giant cyanea jellyfish.

Giant in the sea

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

Cyanea jellyfish. Impressive size

According to the latest oceanographic studies cited by members of the expedition of the so-called Cousteau team, the diameter of the gelatinous “body” (or dome) of cyanea can reach 2.5 m. But that’s what it’s all about! 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 their living conditions. According to statistical data, it is the individuals that inhabit the coldest ocean waters that are enormous in size.

External structure

The hairy cyanea jellyfish has a fairly varied coloration of its body. Brown, purple and red tones predominate here. When a jellyfish becomes an adult, its dome (“body”) on top begins to clearly turn yellow, and its edges begin to turn red. The tentacles located at the edges of the dome are purple-pink, and the mouth lobes are red-crimson. It is because of the long tentacles that the cyanea was nicknamed the hairy (or hairy) jellyfish. The dome itself, or bell, of the Arctic cyanide has a hemispherical structure. Its edges smoothly transform 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 so-called free swimming - they soar on the surfaces of sea waters, periodically contracting their gelatinous dome and flapping their outer blades. The hairy cyanide is a predator, and a very active one at that. 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, cyanea 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. The hairy cyanide rises to the surface of the water, spreading its long tentacles in different directions. She waits for her victim. Researchers have noticed that in this state, cyanea very much resembles. As soon as the victim swims closer to such “algae” and touches it, the jellyfish immediately wraps it around the prey, releasing it with the help of so-called poison that can paralyze. As soon as the prey stops showing signs of life, the jellyfish eats it. The venom 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 releases his sperm through the oral cavity into the female's mouth. Actually, 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 emerge as 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 caught Arctic cyanide, officially registered in documents, is a creature thrown up in 1870 on the coast of the Gulf of America. The diameter of the dome of this giant was 2.3 m, and the length of the tentacles was 36.5 m. Currently, scientists know for certain It is known that there are 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 no one has yet managed to catch at least one such individual.

The cyanea jellyfish is known among divers for its painful sting. 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 local redness on the person’s skin, which goes away over 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 are stung by a giant cyanea jellyfish, it is recommended that you see a doctor.

But not everyone knows that there are creatures larger than them in size - this is an ocean inhabitant cyanea jellyfish.

Description and appearance of cyanea

Arctic cyanea belongs to the species of scyphoid, order of discomeduses. Translated from Latin, jellyfish cyanea means blue hair. They are divided into two types: Japanese and blue cyanide.

This is the largest in the whole world, size cyanea Just giant. On average, the size of a cyanea bell is 30-80 cm. But the largest recorded specimens measured 2.3 meters in dome diameter and 36.5 meters in length. The huge body is 94% water.

The color of this jellyfish depends on its age - the older the animal, the more colorful and brighter the dome and tentacles. Young specimens are mainly yellow and orange in color; with age they turn red, brown, and violet shades appear. In adult jellyfish, the dome turns yellow in the middle and turns red at the edges. The tentacles also become different colors.

Pictured is a giant cyanea

The bell is divided into segments, 8 in total. The body shape is hemispherical. The segments are separated by visually beautiful cutouts, at the base of which are located the organs of vision and balance, smell and light receptors, hidden in rhopalia (marginal bodies).

The tentacles are collected in eight bundles, each of which consists of 60-130 long processes. Each tentacle is equipped with nematocysts. In total, there are about one and a half thousand tentacles that form such a thick “hair” that cyanide called " hairy"or "lion's mane". If you look at photo of cyanea, then it is not difficult to see the obvious similarities.

In the middle of the dome is a mouth, around which hang red-crimson mouth lobes. The digestive system involves the presence of radial canals that branch from the stomach to the marginal and oral parts of the dome.

In the photo, the Arctic jellyfish cyanea

Concerning dangers cyanea for a person, there is no need to worry too much here. This beauty can only sting you, no stronger than a nettle. There can be no talk of any deaths; at most, burns will provoke an allergic reaction. Although, large contact areas will still lead to strong unpleasant sensations.

Cyanea habitat

The cyanea jellyfish lives only in the cold waters of the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans. Found in the Baltic and North Seas. Many jellyfish live on the east coast of Great Britain.

Large accumulations were observed off the coast of Norway. The warm Black and Azov seas are not suitable for it, like all the waters of the southern hemisphere. They live no lower than 42⁰ northern latitude.

Moreover, the harsh climate only benefits these jellyfish - the largest individuals live in the coldest waters. This animal is also found off the coast of Australia, sometimes it reaches temperate latitudes, but does not take root there and grows no more than 0.5 meters in diameter.

Jellyfish rarely swim to the shore. They live in the water column, swimming there at a depth of about 20 meters, surrendering to the current and lazily moving their tentacles. Such a large mass of tangled, slightly stinging tentacles becomes home to small fish and invertebrates that accompany the jellyfish, finding protection and food under its dome.

Cyanea lifestyle

As befits a jellyfish, cyanea It is not distinguished by sudden movements - it simply swims with the flow, occasionally contracting its dome and flapping its tentacles. Despite this passive behavior, cyanea is quite fast for jellyfish - it is able to swim several kilometers in an hour. Most often, this jellyfish can be seen drifting on the surface of the water with its tentacles spread out, which form a whole net for catching prey.

Predatory animals themselves are, in turn, objects of hunting. Birds, large fish, jellyfish and sea turtles feed on them. During the medusoid cycle, Cyanea lives in the water column, and when it was still a polyp, it lives at the bottom, attached to the bottom substrate.

Cyanea also called blue-green algae. This is a very ancient group of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including about 2000 species. They have nothing to do with jellyfish.

Nutrition

Cyanea is a predator, and quite a voracious one at that. It feeds on zooplankton, small fish, crustaceans, scallops, and smaller jellyfish. In hungry years, it can go without food for a long time, but in such times it often engages in cannibalism.

Floating on the surface cyanea looks like a bunch algae, to which the fish swim. But as soon as the prey touches its tentacles, the jellyfish sharply releases a portion of poison through the stinging cells, wraps itself around the prey and moves it towards the mouth.

The poison is released over the entire surface and length of the tentacle; the paralyzed victim becomes lunch for the predator. But still, the basis of the diet is plankton, the diversity of which the cold waters of the oceans can boast of.

Cyaneans often gather to hunt in large groups. They spread their long tentacles across the water, thus forming a dense and large living network.

When a dozen adults gather to hunt, they control hundreds of meters of water surface with their tentacles. It is difficult for prey to slip through these paralyzing nets undetected.

Reproduction and lifespan

The change of generations in the life cycle of cyanea allows it to reproduce in various ways: sexual and asexual. These animals are of different sexes, males and females, perform their functions in reproduction.

Different-sex individuals of cyanea differ in the contents of special gastric chambers - males have sperm in these chambers, and females have eggs. Males release sperm into the external environment through the oral cavity, while females have brood chambers located in the oral lobes.

Sperm enters these chambers, fertilizes the eggs, and further development occurs there. The hatched planulae emerge and float in the water column for several days. They then attach to the bottom and turn into a polyp.

This scyphistoma actively feeds and grows for several months. Later, such an organism can reproduce by budding. Daughter polyps are separated from the main one.

In the spring, the polyps divide in half and from them esters are formed - jellyfish larvae. The “babies” look like small eight-pointed stars without tentacles. Gradually these babies grow and become real 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. The US National Geographic Society 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 humans.

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 does not have a single 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 largest representative of 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. The nervous system is too primitive. 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.

The signal about this is received by 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.