Fascinating Jellyfish Facts for Kids to Discover

This article aims at ensuring you have your breathing mask ready to explore the wondrous creatures that are the jellyfishes. These sea dwellers have been intriguing people with their appearance and skills for hundreds of years already. Not only do they light up the ocean at night, but they are now thought to be a species that gets closer to immortality than any other. Come with us on the wonderful journey which reveals 35 unique facts about these gelatinous miracles!

Table of Contents:

1. Jellyfish facts for kids
2. About jellyfish
3. Interesting facts about jellyfish
4. Weird facts about jellyfish
5. Cool facts about jellyfish

Jellyfish Facts for Kids:

1. Jellyfish aren’t actually fish! But they are a type of animal known as cnidarians which includes animals such as sea anemones and coral.
2. Let us remind you these rather interesting animals have been dwelling on the planet for more than 500 million years. That’s even longer than dinosaurs!
3. It should be noted that jellyfish do not possess a brain, a heart or bones. 95 percent of them consist of water and possess a most elementary form of the nervous arrangement known as the nerve net.
4. Jellyfishes are divided into more than two thousand species living in seas of the Earth.
5. The largest could be as big as 120 feet in length and the smallest is a little bit larger than a grain of salt.
6. There are certain types of jellyfish, and these are present in all geographical settings within seas on planet earth ranging from the shallow waters to the abyss.
7. It might be difficult to believe, but there are some jellyfish that produces light in the dark. This is known as bioluminescence and assists them to capture pray or drive away from themselves antithetical predators.

About Jellyfish:

1. Jellyfish have a simple body structure with two main parts: the bell; that is, the round bit, and the tentacles.
2. To swim they contract and expand their bell-shaped body part which creates a system similar to propellers in water.
3. The small fish, shrimp and planktons are the favourite food of jellyfish. Their tentacles which help them to capture the prey and lead it to mouth that is at the base of the bell.
4. It is curious that the life span of most jellyfish is rather short – a few months, though there are some species, which can live several months more.
5. Jellyfish reproduce in two ways: in sexually (as most of the animals) and asexually by dividing themselves into two.
6. The smaller version of the jellyfish is called baby jellyfish but it is referred to as ephyra. Dear, they resemble flat discs floating in water, with something that resembles bicycle wheel rim around them!
7. It has been ascertained that some species of jellyfish possess the ability to grow their body parts if they get lost for instance through a predator attack. This has to really be one of the most awesome forms of superpower ever imagined.

Interesting Facts About Jellyfish:

1. The box jellyfish is considered as one of the most venomous creatures on this planet and it has a sting that can prove fatal to human beings.
2. The only deathless species of the jellyfish is the Turritopsis dohrnii, which has the ability to transform to the babyhood form in case it is attacked or stressed.
3. It gets funnier when you hear the fact that jellyfish have been to space! Some have been launched into space so as to investigate their performance with zero-gravity environments.
4. The largest, described type of jellyfish is the lion’s mane jellyfish sometimes having tentacles that can stretch to as long as one hundred and twenty feet.
5. Jellyfish is consumed in parts of the world especially in the Asian markets and considered as a food delicacy. In China, Japan, and some of the nations in South-east Asia, dried jellyfish is well utilized in salad and even soup dishes.
6. Stinging jellyfish which are cnidarians have been navigating the globe for more than 500 million years that is thrice longer than the dinosaurs are believed to have roamed the earth.
7. Congregation of some kind of fish is referred to as a shoal, while a group of jellyfish is a bloom, swarm or smack.

Weird Facts About Jellyfish:

1. As you have read, jellies have no respiratory systems. They actually breath through their skin which is very thin.
2. There are jellyfish which can fire venom containing harpoon like threads from their tentacles that can sting or injure their prey!
3. You should know that there is actually a lake in the Palau islands which is fully packed with millions of jellyfish and they do not harm you. Who knew while on vacation, tourists can swim happily with them!!
4. The upside-down jellyfish most of the time lives facing the bottom of the sea, and in this position appears somewhat like a plant.
5. Some varieties of jellyfish are capable of reproducing asexually, in other words they reproduce through cloning. Imagine if one is cut into two pieces, the two pieces have the potential of growing into two complete jellyfish.
6. The Nomura’s jellyfish is known to grow up to as big as 6.6 feet with a diameter of a football and weigh upto 200 kilograms, the equivalent of a grand piano.
7. There is no proper head to jellyfish, no brain, yet they can differentiate light and smell, and they have sense of touch.

Cool Facts About Jellyfish:

1. Researchers have been turning to jellyfish to find new methods of harnessing the human body’s own medical potential, to deal with major injuries such as burns or even battling cancer.
2. There are some species of jellyfish that have the capability to adapt to the color of the water through which they are floating just like the chameleon.
3. Then there is Irukandji, a jelly fish hardly the size of a fingernail but this jelly fish has venom a hundred times more potent than the venom of a cobra.
4. Jellyfish were present in this world even before dinosaurs existed and these creatures have gone through five extinction events.
5. Some beaches have special nets to keep jellyfish away from swimming areas, protecting both humans and jellyfish.
6. Leatherback sea turtles love to eat jellyfish. Their throats have backward-facing spines that help them swallow the slippery creatures.
7. In some parts of the world, there are so many jellyfish that they can clog fishing nets and even affect nuclear power plants by getting stuck in cooling systems!

Jellyfish are incredible animals, which possess many mysterious features. Basic to their historical backgrounds or their special characteristics, the fascinating creatures remain close to people’s interests and hearts. Next time you are at the beach or the nearest aquarium, do not forget to pay your respect to these awesome, otherworldly characters!

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