What is called being immortal?
Being immortal simply means living without dying. I know most of you would love to live in your dreams forever. Unless you have practiced with your mind about simplicity, giving away, and other spiritual activities, you would love to be here forever without dying. Mostly because each and every animal fear death. But we have to admit that death is the ultimate end of our lives. We do not have the power to reject what comes to us.
Today we are going to discuss a friend who has an immortal life which means they will not die. That creature has a cyclic life. It is not just a life cycle, that cycle is all about keeping that creature immortal without being subjected to death. The scientists were amazed by this movement because any other organism does not have the ability to survive forever like this.
How many of you would like to go back to your life and become a youngster or a children again. I know many of you will raise your hand in that case. It would be beautiful if you can go back to the previous ages like that.
Anyhow, we do not have a method, or we still haven’t developed a rich science to do that. A human is a multi-cellular organism that has a complex body structure. So we are not fortunate enough to become immortal. But there is one organism that has challenged this world theory of birth and death. There is one creature that can go back To its lifestyle when it reaches death.
Sometimes you might have heard of this creature which the scientists named “Immortal jellyfish”. We have seen some umbrella-like structures swimming in the sea that has tentacles around its body. Those are the ones we call Jellyfish. Unfortunately, this free swimming session is the last part of most types of jellyfish’s lives.
But it is not the last period of time for Immortal jellyfish. The specialty within the kind immortals is, If they are starving without food or else they damage their own skin in the medusa stage, they have the ultimate opportunity to go back to their younger stages or very early birth stages. How nice if we also can do that. Unfortunately, humans can’t do such a miracle.
Scientific background of this Immortal jellyfish.
Binomial name of this kind is Turritopsis dohrni . They belong to kingdom Animalia, phylum cnidaria, class Hydrozoa, Order Anthoathecata, family Oceaniidae, Genus Turritopsis, and T. Dohrni species. T Dohrni is also known as Benjamin button jellyfish. They are very smaller in size and it would be about 4 – 5 mm in size.
The life cycle of Tutrriotopsis dohrni.
T.Dohrni has two main different stages in their life cycle. They are the Medusa form and the Polyp form. During the polyp form, they remain attached to see surfaces and do not have the ability to swim in seawater. But in Medusa form, they get the ability to swim in seawater. Medusa cells are different from polyp cells. Some cells only occur in polyp while some cells only occur in Medusa.
T.Dohrni has sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction. During their sexual reproduction, Medusa releases eggs and sperm into the water so they get fertilized. The resulting organism is called the larvae stage. The larvae stage is known as planulae. Planulae is a free-swimming tiny organism. Planulae settle down in the deep of the sea and give birth to a colony of polyps.
Polyps have buds that can mature into a young Jellyfish. This Juvenile Medusa becomes a reproductive medusa within the time.
When the medusa of this species is physically damaged or experience a lack of food supplies, they do not die. Instead of dying they can reabsorb their tentacles and lose their ability to swim. After that, they become a cyst and attach to sea surfaces. This cyst can become a new hybrid colony form. This phenomenon s called Trans-differentiation. Then gradually they become the Medusa form Jellyfish again.
What is trans-differentiation?
Trans-differentiation is the conversion of one type of cell into another type of cell. Through trans-differentiation Medusa cells re-program to become polyp cells again.
Is trans-differentiate a one-time process?
No, actually this happens again and again. This process is repeated as the jellyfish gets older, injured, or stressed by lack of food. There we can reach a conclusion that they do not die because getting old or getting injured like other species.
Can Turritopsis Dohrni always hide from death?
This is a question which many have to ask. But they cannot fool the death always. These types can regularly get killed by predators like sharks, turtles, and other species of Jellyfish. Sea slugs and crustaceans also take polyps as their food.
Where can we find this amazing animal species?
This Immortal jellyfish was first discovered in the Mediterranean sea. But today we can find them in every sea habitat all over the world. It's now believed that the spread of this animal all around the world is because of the activities of humans. It has been found that ships have a major influence in spreading this species all around the seas of the world.
What do Immortal jellyfish eat?
They are carnivores species. They feed on plankton, fish eggs, small mollusks, and larvae. They get the use of their tentacles in hunting.
What do they look like?
These types have a transparent bodies. They have white tentacles around their body which are shaped like a bell. You will clearly see a red color stomach inside their structure. They look very cute with their appearance. 95% of their body is made of water. They look like an invisible “blob” floating in the ocean.
They do not have the ability to move fast. They use their tentacles like structures to move from place to place. These are a type of simple organism. They do not have a brain. These organisms have a very simple nervous system. So they do not have the capability to communicate between them. Scientists have estimated that they may weigh about 500g.
Who discovered the Immortal jellyfish.
This animal was first identified in 1883. But at the time scientists did not know the special ability of this animal kind. After 100 years that means in 1980, scientists were amazed to discover this unique ability. T.dohrni’s immortality was accidentally discovered by Christian sommer and Giorgio Bavestrello. They collected T.dohrni’s polyps and monitored them until the medusa was released. Later after checking the jar again they were surprised to see the new formation of polyps.
Where did they come from? they continued their observations and found a wonderful thing. When stressed the Medusa transforms into polyps.
What is the conservation status of T. Dohrni?
Because this creature can be found in seas, we should not make any efforts to protect it. T. Dohrni has been deemed as not extinct and has the least conservation status. Basically what you have to do is protect the environment including the sea.
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