Recently, scientists were interested in the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula. What could attract such close attention of specialists, and especially geneticists, such a simple creature? And the thing is in the next opening. A certain scientist from Italy, Fernando Boero (purely for his personal research), planted this type of jellyfish in the aquarium. Previously, nobody thoroughly dealt with them, probably because of their too modest size (5 mm) and absolutely unprepossessing appearance. For some reason, the scientist had to postpone the experiments, and he safely forgot about his pets. I remembered when the aquarium was already dry, and the inhabitants seemed to be dead. Boero decided to clean the aquarium from them and fill it with the following experimental, but with the usual curiosity he decided to study the already dried jellyfish.
What was his amazement when it turned out that they did not die, but became larvae. He refilled the aquarium with water. After some time, the half-dried larvae became polyps, from which new jellyfish later budded. So it turned out that the inconspicuous Turritopsis nutricula is an immortal jellyfish that accomplishes the seemingly impossible. She independently manages her genes and can “move back”, that is, she returns to the initial stage of development and begins to live anew. In other words, the immortal jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula cannot die due to old age. She dies only if someone has eaten it or tore it apart.
Today, scientists believe that the tiny immortal jellyfish is the only terrestrial organism that can rejuvenate and regenerate on its own. Moreover, she will repeat this cycle countless times. The immortal jellyfish Turritopsis belongs to the genus Hydroid, whose representatives live in the seas of the temperate and tropical zones. This genus includes marine colonial intestinal cavity, namely polyps, the colonies of which consist of several hundred individuals. They are like bushes, motionless and securely attached to the substrate. Although there are loners. In a colony, the intestinal cavity of an individual polyp is connected with the common intestinal cavity passing through the entire colony. In other words, they are all united by a "common gut", along which there is a distribution of all the food that has got.
The immortal jellyfish has a domed shape of an umbrella, along its edge is a whisk of tentacles. Moreover, the number of tentacles increases with age: the newly budded jellyfish will have no more than 8, and in the future the number will increase to 90 pieces. Jellyfish has two stages of development: the first is a polyp, the second is directly a jellyfish. As the latter, it can exist from several hours to several months, and then returns to the first stage again, repeating this cycle endlessly.
The immortal jellyfish hails from the Caribbean, but today it is already found in other geographical areas. This was due to the fact that Turritopsis nutricula multiplied greatly. Some believe that such an increase in numbers could lead to a disturbance in the world's oceans. But Maria Miglietta (doctor of the Institute for Tropical Studies) is sure that you should not worry about filling all the reservoirs of this species with hydroids. Turritopsis nutricula has too many predator enemies who are engaged in the extermination of their offspring. Although, probably, this is not enough, since the number of immortal jellyfish is increasing every year.
