Going in Circles -- Pacific Sea Nettles at the Steinhart Aquarium, San Francisco, California
by Darin Volpe
Title
Going in Circles -- Pacific Sea Nettles at the Steinhart Aquarium, San Francisco, California
Artist
Darin Volpe
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
250 million years before the first dinosaurs roamed the Earth, these jelly-like creatures drifted in the currents of the world's primeval oceans.
Jellyfish, or sea-jellies, are the oldest known multi-organ animal on Earth. With fossils going back 500- to as many as 700-million years ago if not more, they have been around twice as long as any actual fish have swam in the seas.
Even with such a long history, only recently have biologists disputed the long-held belief that these creatures lack a central nervous system. While not as structured as the nervous system in a vertebrate, there is evidence of structures that take sensory input and translate it into the appropriate response. And while they were though to drift the sea with the currents, now it is known that they follow the currents and tides only so far before diving down to still waters as to not be carried off to sea; then they rise up again on the incoming tides enabling them to remain in a general area.
Long called jellyfish, scientists have recently begun to refer to this class of marine life as sea jellies since they are most certainly not a type of fish. Pacific Sea Nettles like these are found in the ocean from California and Oregon all the way to Japan, but these are living in the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Uploaded
January 1st, 2023
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