Then God Created Jellyfish 414
By Chole Raines
Jellyfish were created by God on the 5th day of creation. Most jellies
live near the surface of the ocean but some do live in the deep. They
live in all oceans and some salt water lakes. Jellyfish can live near
reefs or out in the middle of the ocean, depending on the species.
Most jellies live in the warm tropical regions, but there are many
that don’t.
The size of their bell (or body) ranges from the size of a dime to a
beach umbrella and their tentacles can be from 1 inch to 100 feet
long. God created some to be transparent and some that live in the
deep are bioluminescent, which means they glow in the dark. Oddly,
jellyfish have no brain, rather, it is their nerves that enable them
to function and catch food.
Jellyfish are invertebrates, so they have no bones. Their body is
called a bell and their eyes circle the bottom of the bell. They have
very poor eyesight, as they can only tell teh difference between light
and dark. Their mouth is on the underside of the bell, as in an
octopus. Oral lobes hang down from around the mouth and the tentacles
hang from the edge of the bell.
Jellyfish are predators and though all are poisonous, some can be
deadly to humans. Oftentimes jellyfish will remain still in the water
and let their tentacles hang down through the water. When an fish
swims through the tentacles, the stinging cells that the jellies
tentacles are covered in open and darts that are too small to be seen
shoot out and hold the prey so the jellyfish can inject the poison
into its prey. The poison weakens the prey and sometimes even kills
it. Some fish are immune to the poison and can prey on the jellyfish.
The jellyfish life cycle is very odd. The female releases her eggs
into the water and they are on their own. After about a week the eggs
become planulas, which, in their shape, they somewhat resemble giant
snowflakes. The planulas sink to the bottom of the ocean and then
become a polyp. The polyp anchor themselves to rocks and remain there
for about a year. During that time tiny disks begin to grow off the
polyp. the disks take about a year to develop and then they are
released into the water. After several days, the disks develop into
medusae (adult jellyfish).
|