Episode 343: Mystery Jellyfish

Published: Aug. 28, 2023, 6 a.m.

b'This week we finish out Invertebrate August with some mysterious jellyfish, including a suggestion by Siya!\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nMystery giant jellyfish washes up in Australia\\n\\nNew jellyfish named after curious Australian schoolboy\\n\\nMysterious jellyfish found off the coast of Papua New Guinea intrigues researchers\\n\\nNewly discovered jellyfish is a 24-eyed weirdo related to the world\\u2019s most venomous marine creature\\n\\nRare jellyfish with three tentacles spotted in Pacific Ocean\\n\\nThe Immortal Jellyfish\\n\\nA mystery jellyfish washed up on an Australian beach [photo by Josie Lim]:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe tiny box jellyfish found in a pond in Hong Kong:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe very rare Chirodectes:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe mystery jelly that may be Chirodectes or a close relation:\\n\\n\\n\\nA mystery deep-sea jelly with only three tentacles:\\n\\n\\n\\nBathykorus, a possible relation of the three-tentacled mystery jelly:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\nIt\\u2019s hard to believe Invertebrate August is already ending, so let\\u2019s finish the month out with some mystery jellyfish, including a recent suggestion from Siya!\\nWhen you visit the beach, it\\u2019s pretty common to find jellyfish washed ashore. They\\u2019re usually pretty small and obviously you don\\u2019t want to touch them, because many jellies can sting and the stings can activate even if the jelly is dead. Well, in February 2014, a family visiting the beach in Tasmania found a jelly washed ashore that was a little bit larger than normal. Okay, a lot larger than normal.\\nThe jellyfish they found measured almost five feet across, or 1.5 meters. It had flattened out under its own weight but it was still impressive. The family was so surprised at how big it was that they sent pictures to the state\\u2019s wildlife organization, who sent scientists to look at it. The scientists had heard reports of a big pink and white jellyfish for years, and now they had one to examine. Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin thought it might even be a new species of lion\\u2019s mane jelly.\\nNew species of jellyfish are discovered all the time. Dr. Gershwin has described over 200 new species herself. One example is a jellyfish discovered by a nine-year-old.\\nIn 2013, a nine-year-old boy in Queensland, Australia was fishing in a canal with his dad and a friend, when he noticed a jellyfish and scooped it up with a net. Its bell was only about an inch long, or 2.5 cm, and the boy thought it was really cute and interesting. He wanted to know what kind of jellyfish it was, so after some pestering on his part, his dad helped him send it to the Queensland Museum for identification.\\nDr. Gershwin was the jellyfish expert at the museum at the time, and she was as surprised as the boy\\u2019s dad to discover that the jellyfish was new to science! The boy\\u2019s name was Saxon Thomas, and to thank him for being so persistent about getting his jellyfish looked at by a scientist, the jellyfish was named Chiropsella saxoni. It\\u2019s a type of box jellyfish, which can be deadly, but this one is so small that it\\u2019s probably not that dangerous to humans. You still wouldn\\u2019t want to be stung by one, though, I bet.\\nIn 2022, a diver visiting Papua New Guinea got video of several really pretty jellyfish. He sent the video to Dr. Gershwin, who realized the jelly was either a very rare jelly called Chirodectes, or it was new to science.\\nChirodectes was only discovered in 1997 and described in 2005. It\\u2019s a type of box jellyfish and only one specimen has ever been collected, caught off the coast of Queensland, Australia near the Great Barrier Reef after a cyclone. Its bell was about 6 inches long, or 15 cm, but if you include the tentacles it was almost 4 feet long, or 1.2 meters. It\\u2019s pale in color with darker rings and speckles on its bell.\\nThe 2022 video appears to show a jellyfish without speckles or other markings, and it\\u2019s also larger than the single known Chirodectes specimen. Its bell appears to be about the size of a soccer ball,'