On this earth, theoretically speaking, the life of any species follows the process from birth to death. But this species seems to have found a way to live forever.
Turritopsis dohrnii The lighthouse jellyfish is an animal about 4.5 millimeters wide and tall that has been dubbed the immortal jellyfish after research found it can reverse its life cycle.
Lighthouse Jellyfish
Most jellyfish are dioecious. During the breeding season, male jellyfish excrete sperm, and female jellyfish collect these sperm in the water to complete fertilization. It then develops into a free-swimming larval form. As the larva moves in the current, it will find a hard surface to anchor itself to, whereupon it will begin to mature and grow. The larvae mature into polyps, which then germinate and mature into young jellyfish.
Jellyfish Life Cycle
Normally, a common jellyfish goes through five life stages:
- Fertilized egg: Adult jellyfish (called medusa) lay eggs and sperm in the water, and the two cells combine to form a fertilized egg.
- Flat larvae: Fertilized eggs grow into small larvae called flat larvae. It looks like a tiny worm and can swim freely.
- Hydrozoa : Plankton swims down to find a solid surface, such as the seabed, where it develops a digestive system and is able to feed itself. When the water temperature and other conditions are suitable for it, the water polyps will reproduce asexually and clone themselves to form a small colony.
- Larvae: After forming a new set of muscles and nerves, a portion of the hydroid (either the original polyp or a clone) becomes a larvae, an organism that can swim, grow, and eat independently.
- Medusa: This is a mature adult jellyfish that can reproduce sexually with another jellyfish (usually dying soon after).
But when a lighthouse jellyfish's body is damaged or experiences stress such as starvation, it does not die but instead shrinks itself, reabsorbs its tentacles and loses its ability to swim. It then becomes a speckled cyst that settles to the seafloor. Over the next 24 to 36 hours, the cyst will develop into a new hydra—the previous life stage of a jellyfish—which, when mature, turns into a jellyfish. This transformation process, called transdifferentiation, is very rare.
Medusa cells and Hydrozoa cells are different - some cells and organs are only found in Hydrozoa, and transdifferentiation reprograms the jellyfish's specialized cells into specialized polyp cells, allowing the jellyfish to Use polyp cells to re-grow. They can then mature again, producing new, genetically identical jellyfish.
This life cycle reversal can be repeated, and under perfect conditions, these jellyfish may never die of old age. Such as not being eaten by fish and turtles.
Japanese scientist Shin Kubota has been studying the unusual life cycle of lighthouse jellyfish populations since 1990. During two of those years, he found that the lighthouse jellyfish naturally regenerated itself as many as 10 times, sometimes as little as a month apart.
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Lighthouse jellyfish can effectively switch back and forth between medusa and polyp stages during their life cycle, and the exact mechanism behind it remains a mystery to scientists.
If humans master this ability, can humans live forever? When your body parts are broken or you get old, turn on the regeneration function and go back to your infancy? That's too far. It's better to go back to adolescence and grow up again, over and over again, round after round. What do you think of such eternal life? #Rebirth# #Lighthouse Jellyfish# #Which is more terrifying, immortality or death?#
