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Jelly
Home
Body by Jell-o
Kinfolk
At the Aquarium
Teachers!
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Change
begets change.
--Charles Dickens
Metamorphosis. Frogs do it. Butterflies
do it. So do jellies. Jellies go through several different body shapes
in the course of their life cycle. Adult, free-floating medusas produce
eggs and sperm. Newly hatched larvae float in the currents until they
find somewhere to attach. After a short time living attached to a hard
surface, the polyp divides into many ephyrae, which peel off and float
away. Ephyrae float and feed and grow until they are medusas, and the
cycle starts anew. |
© Joyce Bergen
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Life as Plankton
Did you know that jellyfish are the world's
largest plankton? Most people think of plankton as microscopic
plants and animals, and they're right. But the plankton also
include any animal not strong enough to swim against the current
- this includes the jellyfish.
.....The
word plankton comes from the Greek planktos, which
means "wandering." It's the same word we get
"planet" from. Plankton play a vital role in the
global ecosystem. Ninety percent of photosynthesis is carried
out in the oceans by microscopic phytoplankton. |
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