July 13, 2012
How do jellyfish reproduce?
It’s summer time, which means that jellyfish are back in the news – recent reports describe thousands clogging beaches in Spain. We thought it might be interesting to look into their reproductive ways and it turns out jellyfish have a rather interesting lifecycle. Interested in learning more?
When jellyfish mate, the male’s sperm fertilizes the female egg and the zygote is formed, which grows into a planula larva.
The planula begins its life free floating, until it adheres to the sea floor where it grows into a polyp, which is really only a digestive track. Polyps can also actually multiply to form colonies. Eventually, the division process for the formation of individual jellyfish begins.
Take a close look at the picture above – see the difference between the circled polyp and those around it? We actually got a picture of a polyp right as the division process starts. Those little discs that are forming eventually separate off and become jellyfish!
Pretty interesting huh?
Find our more on jellyfish
by shorjes
MOST RECENT
February 14, 2025
How Denmark’s bottom trawling ban could benefit marine conservation
February 14, 2025
February 10, 2025
Overfishing in West Africa: How EU companies are contributing to depleting vital fish stocks