Scientific Illustration

Jellyfish lifecycle by ~LeenZuydgeest

Turritopsis nutricula

From: Medusae of the world, by Alfred Goldsborough Mayer

Turritopsis nutricula

From: Craspedote Medusen / von Cl. Hartlaub.

On Turritopsis nutricula (McCrady) By William Keith Brooks & Samuel Rittenhouse,

Jellyfish by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Icones rerum naturalium :.
Hauniæ [i.e., Copenhagen] :Ex officina Mölleri,MDCCLXXVI [1776]..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41360639

A monograph of the British naked-eyed Medusæ by BioDivLibrary on Flickr

London :Printed for the Ray Society,1848..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10599674

Jellyfish by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Icones rerum naturalium :.
Hauniæ [i.e., Copenhagen] :Ex officina Mölleri,MDCCLXXVI [1776]..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41360637

Icones rerum naturalium by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Hauniæ [i.e., Copenhagen] :Ex officina Mölleri,MDCCLXXVI [1776]..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41360641

meta-apathy:

The developmental stages of scyphozoan jellyfish’s life cycle:

1–3 Larva searches for site
4–8 Polyp grows
9–11 Polyp strobilates (strobilation is a form of asexual reproduction consisting of spontaneous transverse segmentation of the body.)
12–14 Medusa (adult jellyfish) grows.

Another unusual species, T. nutricula, falsely reported as Turritopsis dohrnii, might be effectively immortal because of its ability under certain circumstances in the laboratory to transform from medusa back to the polyp stage, thereby escaping the death that typically awaits medusae post-reproduction if they have not otherwise been eaten by some other ocean organism . So far this transdifferentian of life form has been observed only in the laboratory and it is not known if it actually occurs in wild Turritopsis populations. 

From Schleiden M. J. “Die Entwicklung der Meduse”. In: “Das Meer”. Verlag und Druck A. Sacco Nachf., Berlin, 1869. 

(via eyeballmansion)