Animal profile

Immortal Jellyfish

Turritopsis dohrnii

HydrozoaCoastal waters, harbours and shallow shelf seas

Field profile

Turritopsis dohrnii is a hydrozoan a few millimetres across, with a transparent bell and a bright stomach visible inside. Its notoriety comes from its ability to revert from the adult medusa stage back to a polyp colony. It is otherwise an ordinary small plankton feeder.

Published field notes

2024-08-08

Immortal Jellyfish

The immortal jellyfish still gets eaten

Under stress or injury, the adult medusa can reverse its life cycle and settle back into a polyp, then bud new medusae. That escapes ageing, not predation or disease, and in the sea most individuals die long before the trick becomes relevant.

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