Marrus Orthocanna

We just learned about the Green Hydra.

Another type of hydrozoan is the Marrus Orthocanna.

This animal looks like a long fiery string with bubbles on it.
It can grow to be several feet long, and forty inches wide.

These creatures live in very deep waters, over 600 feet deep and mostly in the Arctic Ocean.


(from: wikipedia - marrus orthocanna)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Big Blue Octopus

Green Hydra

We just learned about the String Jellyfish.

Another type of hydrozoan is a Green Hydra, also called the Hydra Viridissima.

These are skinny green animals with tentacles, that are very small, only about 10 milimeters.

They eat tiny little insects and crustaceans.

Green Hydras mostly do not swim around anywhere and usually just live on top of other things in the water like plants.

Their green color comes from a type of green algea that grows on their body.

They can flex their body a little to move around if they have to, but mostly they just stay on the plant they are attached to.


(from: wikipedia - hydra viridissima)


Giftige Tierwelt: faszinierende Lebewesen im Tümpel. Süßwasserpolyp, Hydra viridissima - nature tv Lothar Lenz

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pharaoh Cuttlefish

String Jellyfish

We just learned about the Freshwater Jellyfish.

Another type of animal is the String Jellyfish, also called the Barbed Wire Jellyfish, Long Stringy Stingy Thingy, and Apolemia Uvaria.

Just like some other animals, this looks like a jellyfish but it's actually a hydrozoan.

One String Jellyfish is really a whole bunch of little ones all attached together.

This animal can get up to about 10 feet long, and 2 inches wide.
They live like one big long string with pink and white tentacles.
The tentacles are all different animals stuck together on the one big long string in the middle.

These tentacles do have a painful sting but will not kill a person.



(from: wikipedia - apolemia uvaria)


Apolemia uvaria - Gaméou (La Ciotat) - AEGYPT0S

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Humboldt Squid

Freshwater Jellyfish

We just learned about the Creeping Comb Jelly.

Another type of jellyfish is the Freshwater Jellyfish, also called the Craspedcusta Sowerbii.

Just like the name says, this jellyfish lives in freshwater, not in saltwater like the oceans.

It comes from China, but it has been found pretty much everywhere in the world, from North America to Australia.

It grows to about one inch wide, and has tiny little tentacles that have stingers to catch its prey, but the stingers aren't strong enough for a human to even feel the sting.


(from: wikipedia - craspedcusta sowerbii)


Freshwater Jellyfish - The Jellyfish Warehouse

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Southern Sand Octopus

Creeping Comb Jelly

We just learned about the Blue Jellyfish.

Another type of jellyfish is the Creeping Comb Jelly, or Coeloplana Astericola.

This type of jelly is actually lives on top of a starfish!

They are small and yellow, and they almost look like little worms with strings hanging off of them.


(from: wikipedia - coeloplana astericola)


373 Seraya Tulamben 23.10.2016 - Jacinto Castillo

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Joubin's Squid

Blue Jellyfish

We just learned about the Velella the sea sail hydrozoan.

Another type of jellyfish is the Blue Jellyfish, also called the bluefire jellyfish, Cyanea lamarckii or cyanea nozakii.

This is a small blue or yellow jellyfish grows to about 1 inch wide.
They mostly live around the areas of Europe by Sctoland and England.

They do have stinging tentacles that hurt a little if a person gets stung, but they will not kill anyone.


(from: wikipedia - blue jellyfish)


Blue jellyfish and Saithe from Norwegian coast - DanOlsen

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Stumpy Spined Cuttlefish

Velella

We just learned about the Portuguese Man o' War that looks like a jellyfish but is a hydrozoan.

Another type of hydrozoan is the Velella, also called the sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail or little sail.

These are small blue animals that float along the top of the water, and have what looks like a little sail on top of their body.

The sail catches the wind and helps these animals move along the water.

They are very small, only about two and a half inches.
Just like other hydrozoans, they are actually a bunch of small animals all stuck together.
They use small tentacles to catch things like plankton with stingers and then eat them up.

The stingers don't hurt humans, but might make their skin itch a little.


(from: wikipedia - velella)


Mass stranding Velella velella on Menorca May 2013 - JNJPO

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ammonoidea

Portuguese Man o' War

We just learned about the Blue Button hydrozoan that looks like a jellyfish.

Another animal that looks like a jellyfish but isn't, is the Portuguese Man o' War, also called the pyhsalia physalis or blue bottle.

Just like the blue button, this is a hydrozoan.
The Man o' War has a very powerful venomous sting, and can kill fish or even humans!

They live on top of the water, floating along the surface with the stingers underneath.
The blowing wind and moving water moves these animals along, as they don't have any way to swim.

Sometimes the tentacles of these animals will fall off and go floating off in the water, but they can still sting someone.
Even if these animals float up onto a beach they can still sting.

Usually a sting from the man o' war is like a mark from a whip, and can sometimes cause people to have trouble breathing.

Because they are so dangerous, usually if they are found on a beach it will be closed until they go away.



(from: wikipedia - portuguese man o' war)


Portuguese Man-of-War | World's Weirdest - Nat Geo WILD

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cephalopods - Flapjack Octopus

Blue Button

We just learned about the Bahtrocyroe Fosteri jellyfish.

Another type of sea animal is a Blue Button, also called a Porpita porpita.

Even though this animal looks like a jellyfish, it is in a different family, called hydrozoans.

They live in the ocean in the warm waters by the equator.

The middle part of the blue button is called the float, and it is about one inch wide.
Around the edge are floating arms that look like tentacles, but each one of them is actually it's own animal called a hydroid.
You can almost think of it like a floating colony of ants, all hanging on to a raft.

These blue buttons just float along the ocean and eats on things even smaller than itself that are just floating around.
They do have a sting like a jellyfish, but it is only a little painful.



(from: wikipedia - porpita porpita)


Jellyfish - Blue Button Jellyfish in Bangladesh [Jellyfish] - নীল বোতাম প্রাণীটি বাংলাদেশের সাগরে - MOK'S TUBE

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Armhook Squid

Bathrocyroe Fosteri

We just learned about the Warty Comb Jelly.

Another kind of jellyfish is the Bathrocyroe Fosteri.

This is another type of comb jelly that lives in the deep parts of the ocean, and lights up with bioluminescence when it gets scared!

They only grow to about 2 inches long.

(from: wikipedia - bathocyroe fosteri)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Broadclub Cuttlefish

Warty Comb Jelly

We just learned about the long clear Venus Girdle Jellyfish.

Another type of jellyfish is the Warty Comb Jelly, also called the Sea Walnut, or the Mnemiopsis Leidyi.

These jellies mostly live in the west part of the Atlantic ocean, and are about 5 inches wide.

They are oval shaped, and they light up with blue-green colors with they get upset.




(from: wikipedia - mnemiopsis)


American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) Гребневик мнемиопсис - Александр Куракин

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Plectonocerida

Venus Girdle Jellyfish

We just learned about the very dangerous Sea Wasp jellyfish.

Another type of jelly is the Venus Girdle Jellyfish, also called the cestum veneris.

This is a very different kind of jellyfish because it looks like a big long clear ribbon with glowing white blue edges.

They can grow to be 1 meter (about 3 feet), and they usually live in the very warm waters of the ocean.


(from: wikipedia - venus girdle)


Venus Girdle Jellyfish - Rave Toy - DaveScuba

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: White Spotted Octopus

Sea Wasp

We just learned about the Diplulmaris Antarctica.

Another type of jellyfish is the Sea Wasp also called the chironex fleckeri.

Some people call this jellyfish the most lethal jellyfish in the world, because it has caused deaths because of its painful sting.

They mostly live around the north side of Australia, and can have tentacles up to 10 feet long.

Their sting hurts very badly, and after getting stung a person needs to get to a hospital right away!

Luckily because these jellyfish only live in one spot in the world, people know to watch out for them, and try to put warning signs up where they are at in the water.



(from: wikipedia - chironex fleckeri)


(from: youtube - BOX Jellyfish - The Most Dangerous Sea Creature - Free Documentary)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Glass Squid

Diplulmaris Antarctica

We just learned about the White Spotted Jellyfish.

Another type of jelly is the Diplulmaris Antarctica.

Jellyfish live in oceans all over the world, and like you might guess from this one's name it lives near Antarctica at the south pole!

These jellies only grow up to about 7 inches.
They have white tentacles and a mostly white bell.
The inside of the jelly where the stomach is at is a reddish orange color, so it really stands out against the rest of their white body.
It's frilly arms that help bring their food to their mouth are also the same orange red color, so they are pretty neat looking.



(from: wikipedia - )


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Parapuzosia

White Spotted Jellyfish

We just learned about the Lobed Comb Jellyfish that lights up like a rainbow.

Another type of jellyfish is the White Spotted Jellyfish, also called the floating bell, Australian spotted jellyfish, or phyllorhiza punctata.

This type of jelly started out living in warm water in the Pacific ocean by Australia and Japan, but has now been found all the way over by California, and even in the Gulf of Mexico.
It grows to about 20 inches wide, and does have a sting but it doesn't really hurt humans.

They swim in large groups with other white spotted jellies, and because of this they can be harmful to other life in the ocean.
In their groups they swim along and eat all of the tiny little things like zooplankton, or eggs of crabs, shrimp or fish.
They also clog up the boat motors and cause problems with ships on the sea.



(from: wikipedia - phyllorhiza punctata)


(from: youtube - Underwater Beauty: Spotted Jellies - Shedd Aquarium)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Giant Cuttlefish

Lobed Comb Jellyfish

We just learned about the small Barrel Jellyfish.

Another jellyfish is the Lobed Comb Jellyfish, also called the common northern comb jelly, or the bolinopsis infundibulum.

It grows to about 6 inches long, and lives mostly in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

This type of jelly is see through or sometimes milky white.
It has two small tentacles, and it's mouth is at one end of its body.

They have little tiny hairs along their body that they use to swim around.
On their body they have parts that light up using bioluminescence.
This means some chemicals in their body mix together to change colors and glow in the dark.


(from: wikipedia - bolinopsis infundibulum)


(from: youtube - The Lovely Lobed Comb Jelly - Monterey Bay Aquarium)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mimic Octopus

Barrel Jellyfish

We just learned about the Darth Vader Jellyfish that lives in the deep sea and looks like Darth Vader's helmet.

Another type of jellyfish is the Barrel Jellyfish, also called the dustbin-lid jellyfish, frilly-mouthed jellyfish, or rhizostoma pulmo.

This type of jelly lives in the Atlantic ocean, and the Mediterannean sea.
It is very small, only usually growing around 16 inches.




(from: wikipedia - rhizostoma pulmo)


(from: youtube - Swimming with a giant Barrel Jellyfish - Matt Slater)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vampire Squid

Darth Vader Jellyfish

We just learned about the Atolla Jellyfish that lives in the deep sea and flashes blue lights.

Another type of jelly is the Darth Vader Jellyfish, also called the bathykorus bouilloni.
It gets the long name from bathy which means "deep" and korus which means "helment", and the scientist Dr. Jean Bouillon who found it.

Because it looks kind of like Darth Vader's helmet, sometimes people call it the Darth Vader jellyfish instead!

This jelly lives very deep in the sea, at around 1,000 meters!
It is very small, only about 2 centimeters wide.
The bell is see through and pale blue, and it has eight tentacles for stinging.
They live mostly around Greenland and Canada.

Because these jellies live so deep, people can not swim down and see them, they can only be seen by robotic submarines that people send deep into the ocean with cameras on them to look around.


(from: wikipedia - bathykorus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Red Cuttlefish

Atolla Jellyfish

We just learned about the Irukandji Jellyfish.

Another type of jellyfish is the Atolla Jellyfish, also called the Atolla wyvillei or Coronate medusa.

The atolla jellyfish live very deep in the ocean, from 1,000 to 4,000 meters deep.

These are very tiny jellyfish, only growing about 170 milimeters wide.
They have about 20 tentacles floating off of their bell, and then one really long one that hangs out trying to trap prey to eat.

Because these jellies are so small, they get eaten a lot by other animals.
When they think they are in danger, they are able to flash their body like a blinking blue light.

When this happens, sometimes a bigger animal will come along and eat the smaller animal that is trying to eat the jelly.
This gets the jelly the nickname of "Alarm Jelly" because it's alarm goes off when it gets scared.

Scientists have copied this flashing blue light and used it to try and get other big deep sea animals to come check it out.


(from: wikipedia - atolla jellyfish)



Creatures of the Deep | Atolla Jelly - oceannetworks canada


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lituites Nautilus

Irukandji Jellyfish

We just learned about the Immortal Jellyfish.

Another type of jellyfish is the Irukandji Jellyfish.

This is the smallest type of jelly, and also one of the most venomous ones in the world!

They can be as small as 0.2 inches, and as big as a little less than 1 inch.
Their tentacles can be as short as less than one inch, or as long as 3 feet.

If this type of jelly stings a person, after about 30 minutes they can have headaches, muscle pains, throwing up, or even a heart attack.
It can take a few hours to get better, or sometimes a day or even a few weeks!

Such a small jelly that pack such a dangerous sting can be scary to watch out for in the water.
These jellies mostly only live around Australia on the north side.



(from: wikipedia - irukandji jellyfish)



Irukandji Jellyfish - World's deadliest fishing - The Nature of Science


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Argonaut Octopus