Princess Amygdala: Invertebrate Insanity!

In the midst of all of my frantic homeworking and chemistry lab-ing, I finally find a break to talk about something really, really awesome.

Jellyfish.

These guys are the ultimate. They don’t have a brain, heart, or bones, but they have existed for more than 650 million years, outdating dinosaurs and sharks.

I guess being stupid isn’t all that bad. Take that, educational system.

There are all sorts of jellyfish. In fact, there is a species of jellyfish that exist in every ocean. There is even a jellyfish, even though science doesn’t consider it a “true” jellyfish, named Craspedacusta sowerbyi, that survives in fresh water.

One type of jellyfish, the Box Jellyfish, is the proud owner of one of the most deadly venoms in the world. Its toxins attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells of its victims. Humans who experience these stings experience so much pain, that they usually go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before they are able to get back to shore.

Box Jellyfish, or sea wasps, are pretty freakin’ huge. They weigh, on average, about 4.5 pounds and can grow to 10+ feet long. Check this out. The guy is 6 feet tall.

Earlier this year, Rachael Shardlow, a 10 year old Australian schoolgirl, swam into the tentacles of a box jellyfish, losing her sight and her ability to breathe. As she was being pulled from the water, the jellyfish’s tentacles were still clinging to her limbs. She lost consciousness shortly after. “When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, ‘you know to be honest, this kid should not be alive’. Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it’s in a morgue,” said Jamie Seymour, a researcher of jellyfish at the James Cook University. Rachael survived the sting, and her father states that she still has some memory loss and still has many scars from the attack.