Jan 5 2009Little Jellyfish Cheats Death, Death Is Pissed
So apparently there's this little jellyfish creature (Turritopsis nutricula, a form of hydrozoa) that doesn't ever die. Biology is beyond me, so I'll let somebody else do the talking while I make a sandwich have a sandwich made for me.
What these little folks do is they revert completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after they reach sexual maturity. They're even cooler than that. When they're young they've got only several tentacles, but at a mature stage, they get to 80-90 of them.
They're able to return to polyp stage due to a cell change in the external screen (Exumbrella), which allows them to bypass death. As far as scientists have been able to find out, this change renders the hydrozoa virtually immortal.
Did that make any sense? I didnt' bother reading it, but I think it had something to do with being able to regenerate your arm like a starfish. *sawing through bone*
UPDATE: Um, so does anybody have the number for Luke Skywalker's doctor?
Meet the world's only immortal animal [zmescience]
Thanks to Emile, who only wants to live long enough to see a hovercar.
Reader Comments
1. 1 - January 5, 2009 12:13 PM
first?
2. I'm a Computer - January 5, 2009 12:19 PM
didnt make any sense to me but still sounds cool as hell. i gotta start eatin me some jelly fish.
3. Thumperchica - January 5, 2009 12:19 PM
It makes sense, but it would suck ass to have to start over every time you got to full maturity...
4. Daisy - January 5, 2009 12:22 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max took a bunch of urritopsis nutricula to Del Tacos and dunked them in the fryer. They died immediately and Max was given a nobel prize for proving they weren't immortal after all.
5. Timbo - January 5, 2009 12:23 PM
How does one learn to return to polyp stage?
Is there a youtube video out there somewhere?
6. known - January 5, 2009 12:26 PM
I didn't bother reading the quote either, but if science ever figures out what's going on in the cell structure (or lack thereof) with this thing and how it cheats death, I hope they make me a new liver out it. Mine's not regenerating anymore.
Heh fried nutriculas do sound good though
7. Ed - January 5, 2009 12:27 PM
where can i find these bastards!!! no one cheats DEATH... Ill stomp the shit out of a bunch of them
8. known - January 5, 2009 12:29 PM
turritopsis nutricula, don't forget the t
9. Rocknrope - January 5, 2009 12:34 PM
Holy shit, Karl Pilkington was right.
10. gizmoduck - January 5, 2009 12:54 PM
that is so badass.
immortal jellies cute cute face
there can be only one
11. Scarlet - January 5, 2009 1:01 PM
ed- be nice
and yes the quote does make sense (abit)
How epic is that! mind it would get borning after 200+ years of just floating around the sea. I bet there are some suisidle jelly fish out there.
12. JohnnyIrish - January 5, 2009 1:26 PM
@3 totally.. hmm at sexual maturity eh? Picture it, you've waited years growing up to finally get some nookie and then bang the reset button is hit and your back in dipers again.
Immortality or hell.. you tell me.
13. C-Basstian - January 5, 2009 1:28 PM
this would actually suck... could you imagine living for thousands of years in pitch black ice cold water just floating around by yourself... no thank you...
14. a - January 5, 2009 1:28 PM
I am SUCH a little science geek, but I found this to be incredibly cool.
Although I do feel sort of bad for the little bastards, since modern scientists are gonna prod, poke, inject, dissect, and maim the things for ways to prolong human life.
15. Jayfournines - January 5, 2009 1:42 PM
Huzzah for prolonging human life!
16. KLanD - January 5, 2009 1:49 PM
Wow...
I mean.. wow..
17. gizmoduck - January 5, 2009 2:15 PM
if it bleeds you can kill it
18. Abraham Washington - January 5, 2009 2:39 PM
So this mean you got a girlfriend/wetnurse?
19. Ed - January 5, 2009 2:41 PM
Hey #11(scarlet) u want to hang out and stomp on a few jellyfish together? ;)
20. James - January 5, 2009 3:22 PM
yessss yes yes prod, poke, inject, dissect, and maim those little bastards they're wasting immortality.
21. mike - January 5, 2009 3:39 PM
cue hungry sea turtle...
NOM NOM NOM
mmmm delicious immortal jellyfish. enjoy becoming poo.
22. Raúl - January 5, 2009 4:22 PM
Awesome!
23. Ryuzaki - January 5, 2009 5:01 PM
I thought exactly the same thing, #2.
24. Tony Huynh - January 5, 2009 7:04 PM
So do they go after each with swords Highlander style?
25. Thousand Sun Anger - January 5, 2009 10:45 PM
Metroid!
26. andrew - January 6, 2009 5:17 AM
the have mastered regeneration these timelords of the sea cant wait till we find their little t.a.r.d.i.s
27. blackrider23 - January 6, 2009 1:29 PM
Hello 1997 :)
http://8e.devbio.com/preview_article.php?ch=2&id=6
28. oldmanboy - January 7, 2009 6:35 PM
@#24. cue music "Queen - Princes Of The Universe".
29. Mike - February 7, 2009 3:43 PM
Normally a immobile polyp(the immature and immobile stage in a jellyfish life...also these polyps usually interconnect to create a colony, that eventually becomes a school of jellyfish) becomes a mobile jellyfish, then they age and die. These jellyfish alter their outer membrane to once again go into the immobile polyp(colonial) stage. Very interesting if we can find out, by what mechanism, these jellyfish are able to reverse aging....all this from highschool biology
30. nathan - March 21, 2009 8:19 PM
as far as I know, this isn't regrowing limbs, just changing states of your body. it's seems closer to snakes shedding skin than humans becoming babies. Of course, it's a simpler creature than us, so it has fewer parts that age too.
theoretically trees NEVER have to die, as the system could continue forever (Trees die because of disease, bugs, and lack of support or nutrition).
theoretically cancer never dies, unless you kill it or starve it.
and this creature I played with in a biology lab can actually reproduce if cut in half. the head-half grows a tail and the tail-half grows a head. the way it works isn't scalable, but it's nifty. also, if you cut a section out of the middle, and it's a thin section, it might grow two heads on opposite sides - doesn't survive long after that though.
31. Fibo - June 10, 2009 4:48 PM
So, how do they break the Hayflick limit?
32. pwnking - June 15, 2009 4:37 PM
I think its fancy talk for "it can become a child again"
or it can basically hit the reset button for life
33. Call Centery Guy - October 27, 2009 9:12 PM
It steals men's souls, and makes them its slaves.
34. bob - November 20, 2009 7:27 PM
LAST!
35. nike outlet - January 18, 2010 1:27 AM
Good post!As i was passing by here and i read your post.
It's quite interesting.I will look around for more such post.Thanks for sharing.
36. dallas - April 7, 2010 11:40 PM
thats awsome i never new that
37. The_Duke - August 4, 2010 10:44 PM
Nearly all of these posts should never have been made.
9 of you are hating on these astounding creatures, 5 of you feel emo for them, 3 of you are selfish little bastards, 18 of you posted stupid, useless junk, and one of you idiots thought that this was fake. YOU THOUGHT IT WAS FAKE, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. Only two of you really posted anything worth reading.
To the 9 haters, #7, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, & 26: These jellyfish are amazing examples of what creatures we have left to find in the world, and another amazing discovery of abilities that humans long thought were impossible. Stop being raging idiots and learn to appreciate the things in this world.
To the 5 sad people, #3, 11, 12, 13, 14: Being immortal would be a priviledge, and all of the other jellyfish are immortal, too. This means that they would never really be alone. And the thing with the mating? FYI, jellyfish aren't capable of emotion. they would never feel lonely or depressed, so your posts are useless.
To the 3 selfish ones, #6, 15, 20: We will never be able to take their immortality, prolong the human life, etc., simply for the fact of the matter that these are jellyfish we're talking about, not monkeys or any other mammal. Anything that we inject the "immortality" into would either: A) Die B) Turn into an immortal jellyfishman C) Be completely unnefected. So STFU.
To the 18 of you that posted useless junk: I don't think that I have anything to say to you, other than "If you don't have anything useful to say, don't post."
To #4: WTF, man. Seriously. Why would you say, "FAKE!!!!!" when scientific proof has it's foot up your ass? If I could meet you in real life, I would beat the crap out of you. Plain and simple.
And to #29 and 30, I say thank you.