The Immortal Jellyfish. No Seriously, I Mean It.

I’m a bit of a science geek and always have been. I love finding weird facts about strange animals. I’ve been doing it my whole life. So trust me when I say this thing is freaking awesome.

The fact that this is what it looks like makes it even cooler.

It’s called Turritopsis Nutricula, aka The Immortal Jellyfish. It can revert back to an adolescent state after sexual maturity. You probably know a lot of guys who are able to revert back to an adolescent state, but we’re talking eggs here. It produces offspring and then reverts back to one itself, Like going from middle age to preschool again. And it’s the only known living creature in the universe that can do that.

So how does this tiny thing go completely Benjamin Button on itself? It’s a process called transdifferentiation, which allows the jellyfish to turn one kind of differentiated cell into another. After laying or spraying eggs (depending on the sex of the jellyfish), the Turritopsis Nutricula changes back into a stationary polyp. It even reabsorbs its own testicles. Best of all? This happens fast. Too fast for scientists to study it in the wild. But 100% of Turritopsis Nutricula have demonstrated this ability in the lab. Yeah. They can all do it.

Originally native to the Caribbean, Turritopsis Nutricula are being found all over the world, probably because of that whole never-having-to-die thing.

Just like the Elves in Lord of the Rings, even the Turritopsis Nutricula has its weaknesses, the main one being that it’s a tiny jellyfish. It is still preyed upon like any other creature, and can even suffer from fatal disease. But make no mistake, this crazy little fish is proof positive that biological immortality is completely real and totally possible.

Just don’t get one for a pet. That thing’s never going away.

FCC Disclosure: JBNI can’t make you into a self-rejuvenating jellyfish, but it is the producer of this blog and 33+ Naturaceuticals with curious effects on your longevity.

Online Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html

http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/turritopsis-nutricula-immortal-jellyfish.html