• Question: HOW CAN A JELLY FISH NEVER DIE OF OLD AGE??????????

    Asked by lozzapotter2011 to Amelia, Jim, Liz, Prateek, Richard on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amelia Markey

      Amelia Markey answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I didn’t know this but from what I can tell it seems to be a certain species of Jellyfish that when conditions are unfavourable (lack of food, physical damage etc) can age backwards!

      The jellyfish forms blob which then develops into a colony similar to the first stages of the jellyfish’s life. The jellyfish’s cells are often completely transformed in the process. Muscle cells can become nerve cells or even sperm or eggs.

      Through asexual reproduction, the resulting polyp colony can spawn hundreds of genetically identical jellyfish—near perfect copies of the original adult.

      This is a similar mechanism to some bacteria (not all) that can form endospores. These are tough structures that don’t reproduce. The bacterium can sit in this state until the conditions have changed and it can grow normally again….pretty smart! Some people claim “the curse of Tutankhamun” was actually infection of the explorers with bacterial endospores that had been waiting in the tomb until they were released and could infect people again!

    • Photo: Jim Caryl

      Jim Caryl answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      This is also true of many tree species – trees can actually be immortal, but the reason they die is because the environment around them changes; they may run out of water, or the soil may degrade, or the climate changes. However, if you could preserve all these things, a tree could in theory live indefinitely. The same cannot be said of many animals. Even in the most ideal of environments, with plenty of food, and water and all the things an animal needs, all animals have a very finite (limited) time on this earth.

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