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| Jellyfish by Tuomas_Lehtinen - Freedigitalphotos.net |
True, this sounds weird, but November 3rd is dedicated to jellyfish - it's International Jellyfish Day.
In honor of Jellyfish Day, here are some interesting facts about the transparent animals that live in the sea and surprise us with unpleasant bites and burns:
Some jellyfish are larger than humans and some are smaller than the pin.
Some countries eat jellyfish, for example in Japan.
Jellyfish are such ancient creatures. They were on Earth 700 million years ago, even before the dinosaurs.
The jellyfish does not have a brain, heart and bones but it has several types of eyes.
The jellyfish consists mainly of water and protein.
A group of jellyfish is called Smack.
Jellyfish can adapt to any type of water and to any depth of water pool.
Most jellyfish live less than a year and there are species that live only a few days.
The largest jellyfish recorded in the world is the lion's mane jellyfish, which can reach over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in diameter.
Most jellyfish bites are just stinging and unpleasant, but there have also been cases of fatal bites: In Thailand, a 5-year-old boy died from a cubic jellyfish bite in August 2014. In 2002, two tourists in Australia died from an Iroquois jellyfish bite.
Jellyfish have millions of cells in the body called nematocysts and they contain a burning substance. These cells are used by them to capture their food by injecting a toxin into the prey. This is why it stings us when we touch a jellyfish.
Jellyfish eat many different types of things, such as small plants (phytoplankton), copepods (crayfish zooplankton), fish eggs and small fish larvae. They also eat the eggs and young larvae of the plankton and many other different types of marine animals. There are also jellyfish that eat other jellyfish!
What is good about jellyfish?
Jellyfish are very important creatures in the ocean and the great ocean. They are used as food for a number of marine animals such as fish and large turtles. They provide habitat for many small fish and they also sometimes protect small fish from being eaten by large predators with the help of their stinging cells. Also, many young crabs catch rides at the top of jellyfish so they do not have to swim.
November 3 is also Housewife's Day and Sandwich Day
