Hmm, that sounds pretty good right around now!

18 days ago by JohnnyEnzyme to c/animals

Theoretically, this process can go on indefinitely, effectively rendering the jellyfish biologically immortal,[3][6] although in practice individuals can still die. In nature, most Turritopsis dohrnii are likely to succumb to predation or disease in the medusa stage without reverting to the polyp form.[7] --WP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii

anon6789 32 points 18 days ago

I don't know if I'd want to be a baby again, but I'd settle for the locust thing of dipping out for a 20 year nap and seeing where we're at then.

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JohnnyEnzyme 9 points 18 days ago

Cicadas, right?

The... (don't quote me on this) 13yr and 17yr stages are both endangered now, as I understand it. The years refer to how long the larvae develop underground, then strategically arise in order to make predation upon them difficult to predict by other animals, primarily wasps.

Locusts refer to some species of grasshoppers that mass in to incredible numbers, retaining their wings, right? Crop-killers IIRC.

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varden 18 points 18 days ago

I was actually just looking up locusts the other day. They are fascinating, they are various species of grasshopper that have a swarming phase. During the swarming phase they go through crazy physical and behavioral changes, they change color, eat a lot more, and breed like crazy. The swarming phase starts with overcrowding causing increased tactile stimulation of the legs, which massively spikes their serotonin levels. Absolutely insane creatures.

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JohnnyEnzyme 3 points 18 days ago

Interesting!
I'd love to read a post here, you getting in to it. ❤️

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anon6789 1 point 18 days ago

Very cool! Thank you for sharing!

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anon6789 4 points 18 days ago

Oye, good call, I was mistaken! I looked it up and you are absolutely correct they are no relation to each other. It seems this is a long running American misnomer, as our only species of locust went extinct around a century ago. Seems a similar situation to us calling the American bison a buffalo, though those two are at least related.

You have set me straight! 😄

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HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 3 points 17 days ago

huh, what they call locusts out here are long-horned grasshoppers, not short-horned ones. til there was that big a difference

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anon6789 2 points 17 days ago

I like how it seems nearly everyone on this post learned something!

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JohnnyEnzyme 2 points 18 days ago

Ah dammit... I thought bison & buffalo (both bovines) were synonymous. Now I'm not sure.

Eh, I might be rambling here, but part of the reason I love Dances With Wolves is because of how we saw the Sioux treat a herd of buffalo-- culling their numbers fractionally, whilst also paying tribute to them as a source of life. That's adjacent to how many Americans have treated them, particularly in the 1800's. Shooting them out of train journeys to amuse themselves, et cetera.

I try to keep context upon all this and understand history. I may talk with resentment sometimes, but I don't believe anything good comes from a life of hating. "Awareness" is a better word, IMO.

/dumb essay, haha

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anon6789 4 points 18 days ago

Same family, different genera. American bison are genus Bison, while the African buffalo like the infamous Cape Buffalo or the Mediterranean buffalo that the fancy mozzarella comes from are each separate genera. Not sure how many types there are, but those were the ones I checked.

I feel there are absolutely ethical ways to harvest animals. Proper game management can improve herds more efficiently than just letting them do their own thing, and people like Temple Grandin have looked at even making industrial farming more humane.

I was raised hunting deer, and still do (though I've been reconsidering it a lot the last few years) and I've met some that really care, and others that feel like those on the train cars.

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DarkSirrush 3 points 18 days ago

Not some species, its a stress reversion that can happen in a single generation, and it isn't 'retaining their wings', its 'breeds and eats voraciously until there is no food left'. Grasshoppers can and do fly just fine even when the locust switch isn't flipped,they just don't swarm in the same numbers, and don't have insatiable hunger.

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JohnnyEnzyme 1 point 18 days ago

Sirrush, as Dark as you may be... I for one would LOVE if you made a post here upon all that. ❤️

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funkless_eck 9 points 17 days ago

From memory - The longest scientists have kept an immortal jellyfish alive in captivity is 5 weeks.

Their physiology requires ocean pressure and movement

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stoly 9 points 18 days ago

Turns into a polyp that divides into new individuals, thereby dying in the process.

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HotsauceHurricane 8 points 18 days ago

All i can see is jellyfish that just ate a hot-cross-bun

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ScruffyDucky 4 points 18 days ago

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umbrella 3 points 17 days ago

it looks like it drops a good powerup if you shoot it

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MonkderVierte 3 points 17 days ago

Btw, what's that red blob with a cross?

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NotASharkInAManSuit 5 points 17 days ago

That signifies that the jellyfish is about to do a cleaving attack that you have to dodge. If it were yellow then you would be able to parry or block.

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JohnnyEnzyme 2 points 17 days ago

This might help. I don't know anything about this specific species.

https://i.pinimg.com/...

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dudeface 3 points 18 days ago

Wouldn’t this be bad for the species in many ways?, can’t understand the evolutionary pressure to allow this

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JohnnyEnzyme 8 points 18 days ago

Yeah, the whole point of classic sex is that it allows for a LOAD more exchange of genetic material than you have with the usual creeping, genetic mutations, compared to lifeforms that self-reproduce.

So there's not an 'evolutionary pressure' here as I understand it, but more like a niche being exploited. We must remember that ~99% of lifeforms on Earth are extinct, and that there are no guarantees of any kind upon sustainable survivability.

For example, with ocean acidification growing pH changes, a range of species (like this one) might suddenly quickly vamoose as a species, with no chance to adapt. That's the 'choice' they made... to live inside a certain niche of sustainability.

Until the lights go out for them... which countless species have experienced before.

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MonkderVierte 2 points 17 days ago

Well, not exactly a choice.

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JohnnyEnzyme 2 points 17 days ago

Just trying to illustrate the difference between the two scenarios.

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Grimy 1 point 18 days ago

I'm guessing they have better adaptability when young.

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Nastybutler 2 points 18 days ago

Must be nice to have a Benjamin Button super power

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LavaPlanet 2 points 18 days ago

Would time seem fast, slow or to not move at all, to them, I wonder.

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tyranny 1 point 17 days ago

if there's any word, prefix, or suffix added to 'immortal', i dont want it. 'biologically immortal', 'functionally immortal', 'spiritually immortal'. if you have to put an extra qualifier in there, meaning it's immortal-ish, then that ain't immortality

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calcopiritus 3 points 17 days ago

Yeah, that works for fiction. In the real world though, nothing can survive entering a black hole for example. So your definition of immortal is pretty useless outside of fiction.

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