Immortal Jellyfish Discovered!

[Lindsey]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_jellyfish

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090130-immortal-jellyfish-swarm.html

Immortal jellyfish, or turritopsis nutricula, has been discovered and recognized as significant since it has attained genuine biological immortality.

Each individual apparently has an infinite lifecycle and can revert old cells to new, meaning that it effectively can age backwards and will never die from age. They can still be destroyed by disease or predation, but that's still very significant!

What do you think? I found out about this in my biology class last week and I think it's fascinating! It was actually discovered in the 1990s but received more attention recently since it's beginning to have a larger presence as jellyfish in general are moving to previously non-native parts of the oceans.

[Chris5150]

Very interesting read. Quite incredible. Who knows the what applications this jellyfish will be used for in the future.

[HorrorShowRot]

Thats an awesome read thanks for sharing:)

[tanks4thememories]

WOW!! Awesome read!! Good find.

[rothenb1]

WHAT!? That is so cool!

[SunSchein89]

Yeah definitely cool stuff. I saw an article about this I think it was a few weeks ago on yahoo. So what does this do for anybody who believes in reincarnation??

[Lindsey]

Yeah definitely cool stuff. I saw an article about this I think it was a few weeks ago on yahoo. So what does this do for anybody who believes in reincarnation??

They don't know of any individuals older than a few years since they're very vulnerable in their medusae stage and if they don't become prey they usually become diseased and die.

Interesting thought though. I'm agnostic and I love the ideas behind Hindu and Buddhist reincarnation - perhaps being an immortal jellyfish could be considered eternal punishment for some past deeds, since Hindus and Buddhists strive to reach a stage where they no longer have to be reborn. Being reborn forever would be considered awful.

[tanks4thememories]

They don't know of any individuals older than a few years since they're very vulnerable in their medusae stage and if they don't become prey they usually become diseased and die.

Interesting thought though. I'm agnostic and I love the ideas behind Hindu and Buddhist reincarnation - perhaps being an immortal jellyfish could be considered eternal punishment for some past deeds, since Hindus and Buddhists strive to reach a stage where they no longer have to be reborn. Being reborn forever would be considered awful.

Well as I understood the article this is only under extreme circumstances that trigger this behavior. So I would think when it reverts back to polyp it then spawns into many copies of itself, the article says "almost exact replicas"- to paraphrase. I would think that just as it is not really known the exact moment when the soul is present in a fetus I would imagine there is a moment when it is no longer present in the jellyfish and then new souls fulfill the polyps. That is what I think when I read it anyway.

[Lindsey]

Well as I understood the article this is only under extreme circumstances that trigger this behavior. So I would think when it reverts back to polyp it then spawns into many copies of itself, the article says "almost exact replicas"- to paraphrase. I would think that just as it is not really known the exact moment when the soul is present in a fetus I would imagine there is a moment when it is no longer present in the jellyfish and then new souls fulfill the polyps. That is what I think when I read it anyway.

That's possible too.. it's hard to think in terms of souls. It might be more plausible that the soul keeps working the same way it does in other animals the way you've just described.