The Faithful Wanderer

A Different Kind of Jelly

A tiny jellyfish the size of a grain of rice, swims in the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists have nicknamed it “the immortal jellyfish.” Why? Because unless this jellyfish species gets eaten or washed up on the beach, it doesn’t die.

To understand what makes this jellyfish is so special, we need to look at at a jellyfish’s life cycle.

The Life Cycle of a Jellyfish

Jellyfish have a complex life cycle. Scientists call the adult form a medusa. These are the jellyfish we see in aquariums, with their long tentacles and pulsing, umbrella bodies. Jellyfish often float in groups. The individual jellies release eggs and sperm into the water at the same time. This sexual act is called spawning. The fertilized eggs turn into free-swimming larvae. Then, after several days the larvae attach to a hard surface.

Anchoring to the ground, each larva now changes into a polyp. One polyp, however, can quickly multiplies like some plants and becomes a colony.

Polyps are very small, and look like tiny undersea plants. Have you heard of plankton, like algae? Well, there’s also microscopic animals in the water called zooplankton. The polyps eat zooplankton by capturing them with tiny hair-like filaments.

Eventually each polyp produces one or more genetically-identical medusae, which grow into adult jellyfish in a few weeks.

Life Span

Most jellyfish die young. To 150 sea creatures, jellies are a tasty snack. The leatherback sea turtle’s whole diet consists of jellyfish and sea squirts. Jellyfish can sting, but they can’t float away fast enough to evade predators. In fact they are at the mercy of the current. A good storm surge will strand thousands of jellyfish on the beach in the U.K. every summer. Jellyfish breath though their skin, absorbing oxygen from the surrounding seawater. Once on the beach, they quickly die.

These jellyfish, if they aren’t eaten or washed up on the beach, will die of old age, within a few months of becoming adults.

The Immortal Jellyfish is Unique

When this tiny jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) reaches its expiration date. it promptly goes backward in its lifecycle and becomes a polyp again! This also occurs if the jelly is injured or faces starvation. Scientists call this rare ability “transdifferentiation.” The polyps eventually release new genetically identical medusas again. That’s why this jelly is considered “immortal.”

The human equivalent? It would be like a 95 year old man reverting overnight back into the small boy he once was. But his brain would revert too. He would again have the mind of a child.

My Spiritual Point

All human beings are immortal too. Not just Christians; everyone on earth.

It’s how our God made us.

1. Right now, we’re like polyps. Because in the earliest part of our existence, we are “earthbound,” anchored to this world by gravity and the physical nature of our bodies.

1. After death, the Christian’s redeemed eternal body will allow us to live in Heaven, forever floating in the Holy Spirit’s current.

• Unfortunately, people without Christ also live forever. They exist in a place where God is not, and that place is called Hell.

Who spoke about Hell most frequently in the Bible? Jesus did. And if He believes in the reality of Hell, so do I. Please remember, no one is righteous in God’s eyes unless they have accepted Christ’s payment for their sin, and accepted Him as their Savior. Because He was the only perfect man.

If you’ve never prayed and asked Jesus to become your Lord and Savior, click on The First Step.

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt 25:46 NIV)

All these jellyfish images came from Pixabay.com

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Editor’s note: People captured these jellyfish images in aquariums, under artificial lighting. Jellyfish are 95% water and semi-transparent, but they can be very colorful in the wild.

But none of these images was of The Immortal Jellyfish.

“The Immortal Jellyfish” (American Museum of Natural History)

Jellyfish and Comb Jellies (The Smithsonian)