Hey there! Have you ever seen a jellyfish? They’re those amazing creatures that float gracefully in the ocean. They might look soft and gentle, but did you know that many jellyfish can sting? Let’s dive into the world of jellyfish and find out how they do it!
Jellyfish are fascinating sea creatures. They don’t have hard shells like turtles or sharp teeth like sharks. In fact, they don’t even have bones or a brain! So, how do they protect themselves and catch their food? That’s where their sting comes in handy.
Jellyfish have two main body parts: the bell and the tentacles. The bell is the top part that looks like an umbrella, and it helps the jellyfish move through the water. The tentacles hang down from the bell and are the secret to their sting.
If you look closely at a jellyfish’s tentacles, you won’t see anything sharp. But scientists discovered something amazing when they used microscopes. Inside the tentacles are tiny darts filled with venom. When something touches the tentacles, these darts shoot out and inject venom. This helps the jellyfish catch food and protect itself from predators.
Most jellyfish stings are harmless to humans, but some can be painful or itchy. There’s even a jellyfish called the sea wasp, which has a sting so powerful it can be dangerous to people. So, it’s always a good idea to be careful around jellyfish!
Did you know that jellyfish have relatives in the ocean? Corals, sea anemones, and hydras are all part of the same family called cnidarians. Just like jellyfish, these creatures use their tentacles to sting and catch food.
Corals might look like plants, but they’re actually animals. They live attached to rocks on the sea floor and have tentacles that point upwards. Imagine your hand as a jellyfish with your fingers as tentacles. Now flip your hand upside down, and it’s like a coral!
When jellyfish are babies, they look a lot like corals. They attach to the sea floor and use their tentacles to catch tiny plankton. As they grow, they become the jellyfish we recognize, floating through the ocean.
Jellyfish are just one of the many amazing creatures in the ocean. They might look gentle, but they’re part of a group of sea animals that know how to protect themselves and find food. Keep exploring and stay curious about the wonders of the ocean!
Jellyfish Observation Journal: Next time you visit an aquarium or watch a video about jellyfish, take a notebook with you. Draw a picture of a jellyfish and label its parts, like the bell and tentacles. Write down any interesting facts you learn about how they move or sting. Share your journal with a friend or family member and teach them what you’ve discovered!
Jellyfish Craft: Create your own jellyfish using a paper plate for the bell and colorful ribbons or yarn for the tentacles. Hang your jellyfish in your room or classroom. Think about how the tentacles would move in the water. Can you make your jellyfish dance by blowing on it gently?
Explore Cnidarian Relatives: Find out more about jellyfish relatives like corals and sea anemones. Draw a picture of each and compare them to jellyfish. How are they similar? How are they different? Discuss with your classmates or family how these creatures use their tentacles in unique ways.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. I want to show you something. This is a purple-striped jellyfish. Pretty cool, right? Jellyfish are some of the ocean’s most beautiful and graceful creatures, but even though they look soft and gentle, many jellyfish actually have a powerful sting. Someone named Crystal has a question about jellyfish. Let’s give Crystal a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Crystal. – I have a question. How do jellyfish sting? – Ooh, I wonder that myself, and I know just the person to answer this question. Her name is Esther Ikoro. She’s an explorer who loves learning about wild creatures and is really good at noticing interesting things about them, too. Esther’s going to be joining me this year in answering your questions, so you’ll see her around a lot. Let’s give Esther a call now. (phone ringing) – Hey Doug, I heard you had a question about jellyfish. – I do. Crystal wants to know, how do jellyfish sting? – That’s a really interesting question. Okay, so jellyfish look squishy and harmless, but all the things that make them so soft and gentle are actually the reason they need to sting. If you look closely at a jellyfish, you can see that they don’t have a lot of the things that other animals have to protect themselves or hunt for food. They don’t have hard shells like a sea turtle or sharp teeth like a great white shark. Jellyfish don’t even have bones or a brain. Their soft, simple bodies make it hard for them to catch food and keep predators from eating them. That’s why jellyfish sting. It’s how they capture prey and protect themselves. You can probably think of other animals that sting for the same reasons, like bees or wasps or scorpions, but unlike a wasp, which has a pointy stinger that sticks out from the end of its body, or a scorpion, which has a big stinging tail, the way a jellyfish stings is hard to see. So before we go any further, I want to know how you think jellyfish sting? Now would be a good time to stop and discuss. Are you ready? Okay. To help us find the answer to this question, let’s take a closer look at the parts of a jellyfish’s body. Most jellyfish are made up of two main parts. The first part is the bell, which is the part of the jellyfish that’s kind of shaped like an umbrella. The muscles inside the bell power the jellyfish’s movement, helping it pulse through the water. The second part is the tentacles. Jellyfish tentacles trail behind their bell in the water. These tentacles can look really different on different kinds of jellyfish. Some jellyfish have short and stubby tentacles, like this blubber jelly. Some are colorful, like this Pacific sea nettle. This jellyfish, called the lion’s mane jelly, has tentacles that can grow over 100 feet long. That’s longer than a blue whale or three school buses put together. Now, jellyfish tentacles may look like they don’t do very much, but that’s actually the part of the jellyfish that stings. If you take a close look at a jellyfish tentacle with just your eyes, you won’t actually see anything that can sting, and for a long time, scientists didn’t know how this worked. But once the microscope was invented, people were able to take an even closer look at jellyfish tentacles, and what they found was really surprising. Check this out. What they found was that there are lots of tiny little darts inside of a jellyfish’s tentacle. Those darts contain venom, and when something brushes against the jellyfish, the darts automatically fire and inject venom into whatever’s nearby. If a jellyfish brushes up against something it likes to eat, the venom stuns the creature so the jellyfish can eat it before it gets away. Now, not all jellyfish sting, and most of the ones that do sting are harmless to humans. But some jelly stings can be painful or itchy, and a few are actually dangerous. The most venomous jellyfish in the entire world is called a sea wasp. The sea wasp is so deadly that its sting can stop a human heart if the person doesn’t get medical help quickly enough. But are jellyfish the only sea creatures that sting from their tentacles? Turns out, lots of other creatures sting this way. Take a look. This is coral. They look like plants, but they’re actually animals. In fact, corals and jellies are relatives. They’re both in a group called cnidarians. Corals live underwater, attached to rocks on the sea floor. They have a body on the bottom and tentacles pointing upwards into the water. Just like jellyfish, corals’ tentacles also release venomous darts to catch food. So corals are kind of like upside-down jellyfish. Try this: extend your hand with your palm and fingers pointing down like this. Imagine your hand is a jellyfish with your palm as the bell and your fingers as the tentacles. Now wiggle your tentacles like they’re waving in the water. Next, flip your hand upside down like this. Now your hand is like a coral with a body on the bottom and the tentacles pointing upwards. It’s the same structure, just facing different directions. And when jellyfish are babies, they look even more like corals. This is a baby jellyfish. At this age, baby jellies attach to the sea floor and catch plankton with their stinging tentacles pointing upwards, just like corals. But wait, there’s more. Many other cnidarians, like sea anemones and hydras, sting too. So in summary, even though jellyfish look like they’re the most gentle animals in the sea, they’re actually part of a whole group of beautiful sea creatures that use their tentacles to sting. Cnidarians, which include jellyfish, corals, and other creatures, release tiny venomous darts from their tentacles to catch food. They’re pretty to look at, but they also know how to get what they need. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks for asking, Crystal. – [Doug] Now we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some older questions from the question jar. You can vote on which one you think we should send out next week. You can choose from: Do bats really drink blood? Why do our skeletons have so many bones? Or, what is the biggest spider in the world? So submit your vote when the video is over; we want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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