Medusa cyaneus is a giant arctic individual with a lion's mane. Giant jellyfish cyanide What does the largest jellyfish look like
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The sea world is fraught with many amazing creatures, many of which people are not even familiar with yet. The organisms that live here sometimes go beyond the accepted idea of \u200b\u200byour existence - the whole point is that their habitat is fundamentally different from ours: it is water.
Therefore, everything is different here: the way of breathing, the shape of the body, the manner of movement and nutrition, hunting, defense, etc. Considering the category the biggest jellyfish, in the first place here you can put giant arctic jellyfish, otherwise called cyanide (Cyanea). See the link for more details. This unusual creature lives in the northwestern Atlantic.
The jellyfish belongs to one of the most interesting marine animals. In water, it resembles a huge mushroom, in which a whole bunch of long tentacles grows instead of a leg. This organism does not have an internal and external skeleton, however, due to the fact that it is constantly in the water, it retains a rounded shape. Anyone moves, including the largest jellyfish in the world, in a reactive way due to the contraction of the muscles that supply the walls of her body, or bells. Interestingly, the jellyfish has two nervous systems at once. One is responsible for the information received from the eyes, and the second is responsible for the synchronization of muscle cells, which are located along the perimeter of the body. The eye of a jellyfish is no less than twenty-four, but the brain is completely absent.
The leader in size is the Arctic jellyfish - сyanea arctica, cyanea capillata or simply cyanoea. This species lives only in the Pacific and Arctic oceans. The body size of this animal depends on both its age and water temperature. Cyanea is a lover of cold waters, so the largest representatives of this species are found there. Some scientists believe that these organisms live in warm seas - the Black, Azov and others.
If you are interested in the record size of other inhabitants of the ocean, about the huge Blue whales, whose population in the world is extremely small. In addition, you can look at the predatory giants of the deep sea - which can easily swallow a person in full growth.
The record holder that became known to people was such a jellyfish, thrown ashore in the Massachusetts region. The diameter of her body-dome was 2.28 meters, and the length of the tentacles reached 36.5 meters. On the average the largest jellyfish in the world has a size of up to two meters and filiform tentacles of 20-30 meters. Cyanea feeds on well-aimed fish: in a lifetime, it can eat up to 15 thousand fish. This creature is incredibly beautiful. Her body in front has a dark color, and is covered with large brown or reddish spots: the older the jellyfish, the darker the color of her body, respectively, the smaller the individual, the lighter the color becomes. Juveniles are usually light orange with brown tints.
The entire body of the arctic cyanide is divided into eight petals, each of which, in turn, has a group of tentacles - from 60 to 130 pieces each: they are painted in pink or purple colors, located along the perimeter of the round body. Each such tentacle is a weapon with which the largest jellyfish kills the victim before eating it: it is equipped with stinging cells that contain poison. In addition to small fish, cyanide feed on plankton and ktenophores; there are cases of cannibalism, i.e. eating their own relatives. These jellyfish hunt in groups of ten individuals, forming a giant net with their tentacles, where many invertebrates and fish fall.
For humans, the cyanide burn is not fatal, but rather painful: the pain from the burn lasts about six to eight hours, allergies can begin. Despite the large size of the jellyfish, she has enemies: these are sea turtles, birds and larger predatory fish. Cyaneas reproduce by budding polyps: first, the larvae swim freely in the water, and then attach to hard surfaces.
As already reported, the largest jellyfish in the world was found on the coast of North America, where it was thrown out by tidal waves. This happened back in 1870. The length of the find was the same as that of the blue whale, i.e. about thirty-six meters. For comparison, a 12-story building approximately has such a length (more precisely, height). The diameter of the dome of the found cyanide was equal to two and a half meters. A person next to such a giant looks very small.
Of great importance in the size of the jellyfish is its color - the larger, the darker. The smallest cyanides are usually painted in a light orange color. This species has a lot of tentacles, which are collected in bunches of eight groups - in each of them there are up to 150 of these long processes, like threads.
It is with the help of tentacles that cyanide hunts, like other jellyfish: they contain stinging cells, from which poison is released at the right time. Cyanees prefer to hunt in groups of ten, so their filamentous tentacles form a gigantic net that it is impossible to slip through unscathed. Fish, plankton, and other marine life come across here. For many, the poison is fatal; cyanide feeds on the smallest prey.
For a person, despite its size, cyanide is not dangerous, but can only cause light burns that disappear after six hours. Those who are especially sensitive may develop an allergy.
However, cyanide is not the only record holder in size - a creature called nomura, or Nemopilema nomurai. As for cyanide, today it is quite difficult to find photographs on the net that would show a person next to her, except when she was thrown ashore. The fact is that the long tentacles of this marine organism, similar to nets, can easily hurt a scuba diver, which, as already mentioned, will inevitably lead to a painful burn. Remembering the size of these tentacles, it is easy to guess that it is almost impossible to get close to this monster. Therefore, most often photographed are small individuals that do not pose much harm to people.
Nomura belongs to the species known as the Scyphoid and the Cornerote order, or Rhizostomeae. Large individuals are inferior to cyanideans in the length of tentacles, but they are worthy of competition in terms of the size of the dome - it reaches two meters in diameter. The general appearance of this wonderful creature is similar to a giant mushroom, next to which a person looks much smaller. The weight of the nomura is about two hundred kilograms, sometimes more. These jellyfish live in the seas located between Japan and China - these are the Yellow and East China Seas.
Starting in 2005, Nemopilema nomurai is a kind of "plague" of these places, in particular, the Sea of Japan. The fact is that the unintentional attacks of these wonderful creatures greatly disrupt the entire work of the fishing industry in the Japanese regions. For example, there was a case when a fishing trawler from Japan weighing ten tons was sunk by these giant jellyfish. The ship was named "Diasan Shinsho-Maru" and it sank near a city on the island of Honshu known as Chiba. The crew of the vessel, consisting of three people, unsuccessfully tried to raise the net, which was filled to the brim with a myriad of these jellyfish.
This incident was reported in the local newspaper Mainichi: as soon as the trawler began to sink, its entire crew jumped overboard, only to be rescued by another vessel. The accident happened, in fact, in broad daylight - the weather conditions were perfect, the sun was shining. Since that time, thanks to the well-established good weather, coastal waters are constantly being invaded by nomura, each of which weighs about two hundred kilograms. Filling the fishing nets, jellyfish at the same time spoil the fish, making it inedible with their poisonous bites. And, of course, fishermen also have accidents with burns.
Exclusively for the Neo-Imaginarium,
Mila Shurok
arctic cyanoea is the largest jellyfish in the world. It is also called cyanide hairy and lion's mane. The length of the tentacles of the Arctic cyanide reaches 37 meters, which makes it the longest animal on the planet. At the same time, the diameter of the dome of such a "jellyfish" is 2.5 meters, and the bright colors of the body make it the undeniable queen of the deep sea.
If you pay attention to the Latin name of the Arctic cyanide, then the first word - Cyanos - means "blue", and the second - capillus - hair or a thin process, that is, the Latin name means that in front of you is a "blue-haired" jellyfish. It is also interesting that, according to the biological "price list", the Arctic cyanide belongs to the scyphoid jellyfish of the disc jellyfish order.
Nevertheless, there are several types of cyanide in the world. Although their exact number has not yet been determined, at present they distinguish not only the Arctic cyanide, but also the blue cyanide (suapea lamarckii), as well as the Japanese cyanide (suapea capillata nozakii), which are significantly inferior in size to the giant "lion's mane" .
According to experts, the diameter of the Atlantic cyanide reaches 2.5 meters. And if we compare this type of cyanide with a blue whale, which is often cited as an example when determining the longest animal, then the blue whale can reach a length of 30 meters (with a weight of 180 tons), and the Arctic cyanide grows up to 37 meters, which allows it to be the longest animal on our planet.
Arctic cyanide lives in cold and moderately cold waters. It can be found off the coast of Australia, but most of all it prefers the northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In addition, she also feels great in the open waters of the Arctic seas. The proof of this is that in the northern latitudes it reaches its most record sizes. But in the warm seas, the Arctic cyanide does not take root, and if it sneaks into milder climatic zones, it grows no more than 1.5 meters in diameter.
There is a known case when, in 1865, a huge arctic cyanide was thrown onto the coast of Massachusetts Bay, on the North Atlantic coast of the United States, which, with all its tentacles, was 37 meters long, and its dome diameter was 2.29 meters. This is the largest jellyfish, the size of which is documented.
The body of the arctic cyanide is distinguished by a variety of colors, in which red and brown tones predominate. Adults are usually colored like this: the upper part of the dome is yellowish, and its edges are pink-red. At the same time, it looks very beautiful that the oral lobes against this background have a crimson-red color, and the marginal tentacles are decorated from pink to purple hues. In addition, it is believed that young cyanide have a brighter color.
Arctic cyanideas have many very sticky tentacles, which are grouped in eight groups of 65 to 150 tentacles arranged in a row. The dome of such a beauty is also divided into eight parts, which gives the jellyfish the appearance of an eight-pointed star.
And since Arctic cyanideans can be both female and male, the process of having children in them is very interesting. So, during fertilization, the males, as it were, “kiss” the females at a distance, that is, they throw spermatozoa from their mouths into the water, which fall into the oral lobes of the females, where there are special brood chambers in which fertilization and development of eggs take place.
Over time, planula larvae emerge from the brood chambers and swim in the water for several days. Then each of them attaches to the substrate and transforms into a single polyp, which, in turn, also begins to actively feed and increase in size. Uniquely, it can reproduce asexually by budding other scyphists from itself.
With the onset of the warm season, the mechanism of transverse division of the scyphistoma is launched, which leads to the formation of a jellyfish larva. At that time, small "jellyfish" look like transparent glass stars with eight rays. So far, they do not yet have either marginal tentacles or oral lobes. Such stars swim in the water, and by the middle of summer they gradually become more and more like real jellyfish.
The main occupation of Arctic cyanides is unhurried soaring in the surface layer of water, where they periodically shorten their canopy and make spectacular strokes with their edge blades. At the same time, the tentacles of the jellyfish are extended to their full length and form a dense practical trapping net.
All cyanides are predators. With the help of their long and numerous tentacles, they catch prey, and strong poison helps them, which almost immediately kills small animals and causes significant harm to larger individuals. This poison is located in the stinging cells, which are densely seated on the tentacles of the jellyfish. Such poison shoots into the body of the victims, which the arctic cyanide then absorbs.
The prey of huge jellyfish is various plankton, including smaller jellyfish and small fish. For humans, Arctic cyanide is also dangerous, although its poison is not considered fatal to humans. However, cases of death of people from such a jellyfish are still recorded. But most often, death occurs from a severe allergic reaction. In other cases, at the place of contact, a person has a slight reddening or burn, which disappear with time.
The Arctic cyanide is the largest jellyfish in the world. This is a very interesting and mysterious creature that lives in very harsh conditions, preferring the cold waters of the Arctic and With the help of this article we will try to get to know her better.
External Description
The dome of a jellyfish in diameter reaches an average of 50-70 centimeters, however, specimens up to 2-2.5 meters are often found.
Such an inhabitant of the oceans can even be called a giant. No wonder the stories of writers (for example, Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lion's Mane") are very popular, in which Arctic cyanide is mentioned. Its size, however, depends entirely on the habitat. Moreover, the further north she lives, the larger it becomes.
Also, the arctic cyanide has numerous tentacles that are located along the edges of the dome. Depending on the size of the jellyfish, they can reach 20 to 40 meters in length. It is thanks to them that this sea creature has a second name - a hairy jellyfish.
Its coloration is striking in its diversity, and young arctic cyanideas have bright colors. As they age, they become duller. Usually there are jellyfish dirty orange, purple and brown.
Habitat
Arctic cyanide lives in the waters of the Arctic and Pacific oceans, where it lives almost anywhere. The only exceptions are the Azov and Black Seas.
Jellyfish lifestyle
Arctic cyanide, a photo of which, in addition to our article, can be found in various literature, is a fairly active predator. Its diet includes plankton, crustaceans and small fish. If, due to a lack of food, the Arctic cyanide begins to starve, it can switch to its relatives, both of its own species and other jellyfish.
Hunting takes place as follows: it rises to the surface of the water, directs its tentacles in different directions and waits. In this state, jellyfish look like algae. As soon as its prey touches its tentacles as it swims by, the arctic cyanide wraps itself around the entire body of its prey and releases poison that can paralyze. After the victim stops moving, she eats it. Paralyzing poison is produced in the tentacles, and along their entire length.
In turn, the Arctic cyanide can also become a dinner for other jellyfish, seabirds, turtles and It is worth noting that even the largest specimens do not pose any particular danger to humans. In the worst case, a rash appears at the points of contact with this inhabitant of the oceans, which immediately disappears after the use of antiallergic drugs. Usually such a reaction occurs in a person with sensitive skin, and some people sometimes may not even notice anything.
Reproduction of arctic cyanide
This process is very interesting: the male ejects spermatozoa through the mouth, and they, in turn, enter the female's oral cavity. This is where the formation of embryos takes place. After they grow up, they come out in the form of larvae, which attach to the substrate and turn into a single polyp. After several months of active growth, it begins to multiply, due to which the larvae of future jellyfish appear.
Cyanea (Cyanea capillata) (Otherwise it is called a giant arctic jellyfish, hairy jellyfish, blue-haired jellyfish or lion's mane jellyfish) is the largest of the jellyfish. Moreover, it is one of the longest living creatures on the planet (the first place is occupied by the blue whale, which is about 30 meters long and weighs 180 tons. In third place are worms of the nematode family and tapeworms).
The size of the bell in some representatives of this species exceeds 2 meters, and the weight can reach 300 kg. The tentacles of large individuals can reach a length of 20 meters. In 1865, a specimen with tentacles 37 meters long was discovered on the North Atlantic coast of the United States.
Cyanea is 94% water.
The hemispherical bell of the arctic cyanide jellyfish has curly edges and consists of 2 layers of fabric.
The bell is divided into 8 beats. Each of the shares has some indentations at its base. In the lobes are the sense organs of the jellyfish (receptors for smell and light).
On the inside of the umbrella around the entire perimeter of the mouth of the jellyfish are small tentacles. In addition to the bottom, the cyanide also has tentacles up to 20 meters long!
Just imagine 8 groups of tentacles with 150 in each group!!! And they all contain poisonous stinging organs - nematocysts. The poison of the jellyfish is strong, but it does not pose a threat to human life. However, poisoning and burns from "close acquaintance" with this giant of the sea are guaranteed.
Interestingly, giant hairy jellyfish are divided by gender. Sperm and eggs are produced in their peculiar bags located on the walls of the stomach. When the spermatozoa mature, the male brings them out through the mouth. The female (again through the mouth) passes the sperm to her egg, thus fertilization occurs.
Until full maturation of the larvae, cyanide eggs rest in the tentacles of their huge parents. The larvae that emerge from the eggs settle to the bottom, becoming polyps. On polyps, over time, small appendages grow, and then separate from it. It is they who will become the new jellyfish in the future.
Cyanideas feel best in cold waters, it is there that the largest specimens of these poisonous beauties are found. But more and more news is coming that giant jellyfish are starting to appear in the warm seas. Moreover, Japan and China are forced to limit fishing due to the appearance of jellyfish. Whole, I'm not afraid of this wording, fleets of giant jellyfish are increasingly attacking the Sea of Japan !!!
Here is what they write in Japanese newspapers:
"To reduce the damage caused by jellyfish, Professor Yui developed
an early signaling system for the arrival of giant jellyfish in the Sea of Japan. This system involves checking the population of jellyfish through travel from Chinese coastal waters to the Sea of Japan. The resulting data, then translated into mathematical models, will be able to predict the routes of the giant jellyfish to the Sea of Japan and the approximate time of their arrival up to three months in advance.
These types of warnings give fishermen time to prepare their nets to protect them from giant jellyfish. However, such installations are too expensive for many fishermen. It is clear that such methods are only short-term adjustments, and not a long-term solution to the problem.
Cyanees are pelagic inhabitants of the seas, i.e. they live mainly at a depth of about 20 meters, rarely approaching the shores (to be honest, I was incredibly pleased with this news, and you?). Throughout their lives, jellyfish trust the movement of their jelly-like bodies to ocean currents. Lazily moving their long tentacles, in which small fish and invertebrates find a safe haven, jellyfish spend the time allotted to them by the laws of nature ...
Jellyfish cyanide giant (Cyanea capillata), also known as hairy cyanide or lion's mane, is the largest animal on our planet. It would be more accurate to say - not the largest, but the longest, since this record was fixed on the basis of measuring the length of her tentacles.
In 1865, on the coast of Massachusetts Bay (North Atlantic coast of the USA), the sea threw out a huge jellyfish, the diameter of which was 229 cm, and the length of the tentacles reached 37 meters. This is the largest of the giant cyanide specimens, the measurement of which is documented.
According to zoologists, cyanide can reach a bell diameter of 2.5 m. Considering that the blue whale, which is a popular example when designating the longest animal, can reach 30 meters in length, weighing about 180 tons, then the giant cyanide's claim to the title of the longest animal on Earth is quite understandable.
Only a worm can compete with her Bootlace. After a violent storm on St. Andrews, Scotland in 1864, a worm over 55 meters long and about 10 cm wide washed ashore. However, scientists do not recognize the worm as the record holder for the longest body among known animals, since its body is able to greatly stretch, which makes it impossible to establish the true size. Therefore, the giant cyanide proudly sits on the top step of the champions' podium.
From Latin " Cyanos"translates to blue as well" capillus"- hair or capillary, i.e. literally - a blue-haired jellyfish. This is a representative of the scyphoid jellyfish of the disc jellyfish order.
Cyanea exists in several forms. Their number is a matter of dispute between scientists, however, two more varieties of it are currently distinguished - blue (or blue) cyanide ( Cuapea lamarckii) and Japanese cyano ( Cuapea capillata nozakii). These relatives of the giant "lion's mane" are significantly inferior to her in size.
Cyanea giant is a resident of cold and moderately cold waters. It is also found off the coast of Australia, but is most numerous in the northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, as well as in the open waters of the seas of the Arctic. It is here, in the northern latitudes, that it reaches a record size. In warm seas, cyanide does not take root, and if it penetrates into milder climatic zones, it does not grow more than half a meter in diameter. 
These jellyfish are pelagic inhabitants of the seas, rarely approaching the shores, swimming at the behest of currents and the lazy movement of tentacles at depths of no more than 20 meters. In the open sea, cyanide is a kind of floating "oasis" of life, in which small marine invertebrates and fish find shelter and shelter. Among the long and burning tentacles of the giant cyanide, they feel safe and can find food.
The color of the body of the giant cyanide depends on its size - small individuals are colored in orange and yellow-brown colors, in larger ones, red, brown and even dark purple shades predominate in the color of the bell and the bunch of tentacles. With age, the color of cyanide becomes brighter and more colorful. The bell of the jellyfish is divided into eight segments, from under which numerous tentacles grow, outwardly resembling a tangled mane of a lion. Hence the popular name of cyanide - lion's mane.
Cyanea, like all other jellyfish, is a predator. Since nature did not provide these creatures with the ability to move quickly and pursue prey, they are armed with stinging cells on the body and tentacles, which allow them to paralyze the victim, and then slowly eat it.
The basis of the diet of giant cyanide is small marine inhabitants, mainly planktonic organisms, which, as you know, are the richest in cold-water regions of the oceans and seas. In addition to plankton, small fish that accidentally touched the tentacles, mollusks and crustaceans often get on the "dining table" of these large jellyfish. She does not disdain to eat other jellyfish, including young cyanides. The predator, paralyzed by the poison of stinging cells, pushes its tentacles to the mouth opening and directs them into the mouth with the help of blades.
Like other jellyfish, giant cyanide is capable of sexual and asexual reproduction. The male ejects the reproductive products through the mouth opening, and they penetrate into the brood chambers on the oral lobes of the females. This is where the eggs are fertilized and incubated.
The hatched planulas float for some time in the water column, then attach themselves to a solid substrate and turn into single polyps, which later bud young jellyfish in the form of translucent ethers with eight rays and without tentacles. Gradually, the esters turn into full-fledged jellyfish and subsequently reproduce sexually.
The poison of the stinging cells of the giant cyanide is strong enough, but not fatal for a healthy person. As a rule, it can cause burning of varying degrees of intensity (depending on the sensitivity of the skin), but does not lead to death. However, for a person with poor health, too extensive contact with cyanide can lead to big troubles.
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