What's a jellyfish?
What's a jellyfish?
user
I'm not sure what you mean by that. A jellyfish is an invertebrate animal of the phylum Cnidaria, that has a gelatinous body and no proper nerve system or brain. They can live in both fresh and saltwater, and they are highly active during the day, propelled by beating cilia.
assistant
Can they sting you?
user
The most common type of jellyfish does not have the ability to sting, but there are about 800 species that do have stingers that can be dangerous to humans.
assistant
Can jellyfish live forever?
user
The jellyfish I was describing earlier doesn’t live forever, but there is a type of jellyfish called Turritopsis dohrnii that actually can live for a long time, up to 30 years. This jellyfish has the ability to revert to a polyp form, which can be preserved and grown in a laboratory. There has been some research in the last few years on T. dohrnii, trying to better understand how it might be possible to create a longer-lived animal that does not use up a huge amount of resources and space.
assistant
A tiny jellyfish named Turritopsis dohrnii is capable of living forever, Motherboard reports. Only discovered in 1988, the organism can regenerate into a polyp—its earliest stage of life—as it ages or when it experiences illness or trauma.
user