Jellyfish

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the life-cycle and reproduction, defense and feeding mechanisms and body systems of jellyfish. The paper looks at how they group themselves into "swarms" or "blooms" and the problems when keeping them in captivity. The paper discusses the severity of jellyfish stings and the different species of jellyfish that exist.

Outline:
Life-cycle and reproduction
Defense and Feeding Mechanisms
Body Systems
Blooms and Grouping
Captivity Sting Treatment
Species

From the Paper:

"Jellyfish are marine invertebrates which are part of the Scyphozoan class, and in turn the phylum Cnidaria; "members of this structurally simple marine group possess one of two body forms. Sea anemones, sea whips, corals and hydroids are polyps growing attached to rocks or other hard surfaces of the sea. Jellyfish and the Portuguese man-of- war are free-swimming medusa. Both body forms display radial symmetry with body parts radiating from a central axis. This symmetry allows jellyfish to respond to food or danger from any direction" . Moreover, they have strange shapes and colors: they might look like a bell or an inverted bowl from 3 millimeters to 2 meters in diameter. Their bells contain small sense organs that respond to light and gravity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Pieribone, V. and D.F. Gruber, Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence. Harvard University Press, 2006, 288p;
• Jacobson, Morris, Wonders of Jellyfish. New York: Dodd Mead, 1978
• Jellyfish - Sea Science Series, at http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascience/jellyfi.html
• Kyle McGilligan Bentin, "Jellyfish up close", at http://danenet.wicip.org/mmsd-it/jellyfish.html
• Jellyfish, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish

More papers on Jellyfish:

• Research Paper # 128448 : "Understanding Cnidarians"
• Descriptive Essay # 106256 : "Neurocreation"
• Descriptive Essay # 109409 : "Cnidarians' Defenses"

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