_qualle_9 on ig

🎶Under the Sea🎶

Holy shit I finally finished it! The interconnectivity of the British Columbian marine ecosystem is one of my favourite things in the world, so here are a few treasured icons.

Moon Jellies l Alaska

Moon jellies (Aurelia labiata). | Crystal jellies (Aequorea victoria). Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California. 4 February 2019.

Moon jellies (Aurelia aurita) by Shane Gross

A moment with moon jellies

A second of sealestial wonder

Searenity now

It’s not just a phase.

aquarium dream

Sea creature doodle page !!

Chelli & Moons

she cute, she gay, she slay

🪼Moon and Comb Jellyfish🪼

Facts of the Day: 🌊Moon Jellies🌊

Scientific Name: Aurelia aurita

Size: Between 2 to 15 inches

Lifespan: 8 to 12 months 

Reproduction: They breed through external fertilization. The species as a whole breeds year round but individuals have to wait till they reach sexual maturity in the medusae phase and then reproduce for 2 to 3 months most often in the late summer months. They can also reproduce asexually while in the polyp stage.

Diet: Tiny zooplankton, mollusk larvae, crustaceans, and small fishes

Habitat: They are found worldwide but prefer warm coastal waters in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean.

Status: Least Concerned

Summary: Moon Jellies travel in big social congregates called smacks worldwide, with larger numbers off the coast of California as well as Canada and Europe. They are a very plentiful species and are a common prey species for a lot of animals, most notably species of Sea Turtles. However a fun place Moon Jellies have been found is actually in space! 2,500 Moon Jelly polyps and ephyrae (the two early stages of development for jellies) went into orbit on the space shuttle Columbia in 1991 to study the effects of weightlessness on internal organ development. While they didn’t make it to the moon, the findings of the study helped us understand more about the effects of zero gravity on astronauts.

blue blubber jellyfish // moon jellies // japanese sea nettle // pacific sea nettle

Images from the National Aquarium!

Join us tomorrow (12/20) for 12 straight hours of LIVE moon jellies here on Tumblr!

Stream begins 9AM PT.

Decided to come back to Tumblr, so take a lil moon jellyfish drawing i did!!

P.S:its also a shading test.

earth fact time. in 1991, nasa launched about 2,500 moon jelly polyps into space. they wanted to see how developing in zero-gravity would affect jellyfish behaviour back on earth. by the end of the mission, there were about 60,000 jellyfish orbiting earth - they'd gotten BUSY up there.

essentially, the way humans tell which way is up and which is down is a bunch of tiny crystals on a bunch of tiny hairs in our ears. the crystals roll around and move the hair cells, which signals directions to our brain. jellyfish have similar crystal-hairs around their bells (the umbrella-looking bit), so knowing how jellyfish responded to 0G development would help us figure out how humans would do in a similar scenario!

results found that, once returned to earth, the moon jellies had trouble getting around. they had vertigo and couldn't tell up from down, and sort of looked drunk, if moon jellies could get drunk. doesn't bode too well for us, i think.

NOVA | the atlantic | jellyfishart.com

photos: ume-y (flickr) | akron zoo