? Moon Jelly
patch in the Baltic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Cnidaria Class: Scyphozoa Order: Semaeostomeae Family: Ulmaridae Genus: Aurelia Species: A. aurita
Binomial name
Aurelia aurita Linnaeus, 1758

Moon Jelly (Aurelia aurita) are the most common Jellyfish species found in the genus Aurelia. Other species found in the genus Aurelia besides A. aurita are: A. labiata, A. limbata, Aurelia sp. They can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and are common to the waters off California, Japan, the East Coast of the United States as well as Europe. The animal can be large (up to 15cm across), translucent and often considered beautiful for the patterns of color within its body. It feeds by stinging small medusans, plankton and mollusks with its tentacles and bringing them into its body for digestion, but is capable of only limited motion; like other jellies it drifts with the current. Image File history File links aurelia aurita image uwe kils gfdl File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53 deg. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anenomes) Placozoa (trichoplax) Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... Classes Anthozoa - Corals and sea anemones Cubozoa - Sea wasps or box jellyfish Hydrozoa - Hydroids, hydra-like animals Scyphozoa - Jellyfish Cnidaria (from New Latin cnida nematocyst, fr. ... This article is about jellyfish, the sea creatures. ... Families See text Semaeostomeae is an order of jellyfish. ... Genera See text Ulmaridae is a family of jellyfish. ... Aurelia can refer to any of the following: Aurelia is a city in Iowa. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné â–¶(?), and in English usually under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ... Orders Stauromedusae Coronatae Semaeostomeae - Disc jellyfish Rhizostomae Jellyfish (also called jellies or sea jellies as they are not true fish) are animals that belong to the Class Scyphozoa (from Greek skyphos cup and zoon animal) which is in the Phylum Cnidaria. ... In biology, a genus (plural genera) is a grouping in the classification of living organisms having one or more related and morphologically similar species. ... Aurelia can refer to any of the following: Aurelia is a city in Iowa. ... State nickname: The Golden State Official languages English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 4. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... A satellite composite image of Europe // Etymology Picture of Europa, carried away by bull-shaped Zeus. ... Medusa was a gorgon from Greek mythology, the sight of whom turned people to stone. ... Photomontage of plankton organisms Plankton are drifting organisms that inhabit the water column of oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ...

General biology

The cosmopolitan Aurelia aurita is found throughout the tropics and as far north as 70° latitude and as far south as 40°. (J.E. Purcell, et al. 2001). In addition to frequenting the North American coast, they are usually found all around the coasts of the British Isles (Russell, 1953). In general, A. aurita is an inshore species that can be found in places like estuaries and harbors (Russell, 1953). They live in ocean water temperatures that range from −6 °C to 31 °C; with optimum temperatures of 9 °C to 19 °C (Rodriguez, 1996). A. aurita prefers mildly cold salt water with consistent currents (Rodriguez, 1996). They can be found in 3% salinity water but are typically found only in water with 6% salinity (Russell, 1953). The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics: the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ... Estuaries and coastal waters are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, providing numerous ecological, economic, cultural, and aesthetic benefits and services. ... A harbor (AmE), harbour (CwE) or haven is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. ... The worlds oceans as seen from the South Pacific Ocean (from Okeanos, Greek for river, the ancient Greeks noticed that a strong current flowed off Gibraltar, and assumed it was a great river); covers almost three quarters (71%) of the surface of the Earth, and nearly half of the... The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) is an SI derived unit of temperature. ... Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. ...

Life cycle

A. aurita first starts out with an ovum from a female medusa and a sperm from a different medusa to form a zygote. The zygote then turns into a blastula, then gastrula, and then planula (Gilbertson, 1999). A human ovum An ovum (loosely, egg or egg cell) is a female sex cell or gamete. ... A relatively modern image of Medusa painted by Arnold Böcklin In Greek mythology, Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα), was a monstrous female character whose gaze could turn people to stone. ... The signifier sperm can refer to: (mass noun, from Greek sperma = seed) a substance which consists of spermatozoa and which is a component of semen (mass noun) semen itself (informally, count noun with plural sperm or sperms) a single spermatozoon (= sperm cell) sperma ceti (Latin ceti, genitive of cetus = whale... A zygote (Greek: ζυγωτόν) is a cell that is the result of fertilization. ... Blastulation. ... 1 - blastula, 2 - gastrula; orange - ectoderm, red - endoderm. ... A planula is the free-swimming, flattened, ciliated, bilaterally symmetrical larva of a hydrozoan cnidarian. ...

The planula settles on the bottom and attaches itself onto a reef for a while and then grows and changes into a small polyp called a scyphistoma. This scyphistoma grows and becomes a strobila with small buds on the top layers, each of these buds then breaking off and forming an ephyra. The ephyra enlarges and matures to become the last stage, adult medusa. The strobila stage can reproduce by asexual fission (Gilbertson, 1999). A reef surrounding an islet. ... In zoology, a polyp is one of two forms of individuals found in many species of cnidarians. ...

From mid July to October is when the growth of A. aurita at its highest. The ephyra and medusa stage can last approximately 14 months, although some medusae die earlier in the winter (Aria, 1997).

A. aurita has a complicated life cycle that has two main stages. In the polyp stage they reproduce asexually while the medusa stage they reproduce sexually.

The major tolerance and adaptability of A. aurita explains its presence worldwide. Medusae appear more frequently in shallow water that is open to the ocean with limited waves. The intermediate planula stage generally stays in water that is around 20 feet deep. The scyphistomas can be located in mussel beds. A. aurita medusae can survive in polluted, nutrient-poor, and airless environments. The polyps can survive in oxygen levels that are three times normal for several days, giving them a higher chance of living in case of a sudden change in the water oxygen.

Feeding

A. aurita species feed on zooplankton that includes organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans, tunicate larvae, copepods, rotifers, nematodes, young polychaetes, protozoans, diatoms, eggs, fish eggs, and other small jellies. Occasionally, they are also seen feeding on hydromedusa and ctenophores (Rodriguez, 1996). Larvae of A. aurita have special nematocysts to capture prey and also to protect themselves from predators. The food is tied with mucus, and then it passed down by ciliated action down into the gastrovascular cavity where digestive enzymes from serous cell would break down the food. There is little known about the requirements for particular vitamins and minerals, but due to the presence of some digestive enzymes, we can deduce in general that A. aurita species consume carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids (Arai, 1997). Photomontage of plankton organisms Plankton is the aggregate community of weakly swimming but mostly drifting small organisms that inhabit the water column of the ocean, seas, and bodies of freshwater. ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ... Classes Class Branchiopoda Subclass Phyllopoda Subclass Sarsostraca Class Remipedia Order Enantiopoda Order Nectiopoda Class Cephalocarida Order Brachypoda Class Maxillopoda Subclass Mystacocarida Subclass Copepoda Subclass Branchiura Subclass Pentastomida Subclass Tantulocarida Subclass Thecostraca Infraclass Cirripedia Class Ostracoda Order Metacopina Subclass Myodocopa Subclass Podocopa Class Malacostraca Subclass Eumalacostraca Subclass Hoplocarida Subclass Phyllocarida The... Larvae are the plural of larva, juvenile form of animals with indirect development. ... Orders Calanoida Cyclopoida Gelyelloida Harpacticoida Misophrioida Monstrilloida Mormonilloida Platycopioida Poecilostomatoida Siphonostomatoida Copepods are small animals living in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. ... Classes Seisonoidea Bdelloidea Monogononta The rotifers make up a phylum of microscopic, pseudocoelomate animals. ... Classes Adenophora    Subclass Enoplia    Subclass Chromadoria Secernentea    Subclass Rhabditia    Subclass Spiruria    Subclass Diplogasteria The roundworms (Phylum Nematoda) are one of the most common phyla of animals, with over 20,000 different described species. ... Orders Amphinomida Capitellida Chaetopterida Cirratulida Cossurida Ctenodrillidae Eunicida Flabelligerida Magelonida Myzostomida Nerillida Opheliida Orbiniida Orweniida Phyllodocida Pisionidae Polygordiida Protodrilida Psammodrilidae Sabellida Spionida Spintheridae Sternaspida Terebellida Tomopteris from plankton The Polychaeta or Polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine, with a pair of fleshy protrusions on each body segment... Protozoa (in Greek protos = first and zoon = animal) are single-celled creatures with nuclei that show some characteristics usually associated with animals, most notably mobility and heterotrophy. ... Diatoms are a major group of eukaryotic algae, and are one of the most common types of phytoplankton. ... Classes Tentaculata Nuda Ctenophores are jellyfish-like animals commonly called comb jellies, sea gooseberries, sea walnuts, or Venus girdles. ... Cnidocytes are prey-capture and defensive cells found on animals of the phylum Cnidaria. ... cross-section of two cilia, showing 9+2 structure A cilium (plural cilia) is a fine projection from a eukaryotic cell that constantly beats in one direction. ... Digestion is the process whereby a biological entity processes a substance, in order to chemically convert the substance into nutrients. ... Ribbon diagram of the catalytically perfect enzyme TIM. An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes, or speeds up, a chemical reaction. ... A Vitamin is an organic molecule required by a living organism in minute amounts for proper health. ... This article is about minerals in the geologic sense; for nutrient minerals see dietary mineral; for the band see Mineral (band). ... Carbohydrates are chemical compounds that contain oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon atoms. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Figure 1: Structure of a Lipid. ...

Filtering Grid

Body system

A. aurita does not have respiratory parts such as gills, lungs, or trachea. Since it is a small organism, it respires by diffusing oxygen from water through the thin membrane. Within the gastrovascular cavity, low oxygenated water can be expelled and high oxygenated water can come in by ciliated action, thus increasing the diffusion of oxygen through cell (Rees, 1966). The large surface area membrane to volume ratio helps A. aurita to diffuse more oxygen and nutrients into the cells. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... gills of a Smooth Newt In aquatic organisms, gills are a respiratory organ for the extraction of oxygen from water and for the excretion of carbon dioxide. ... The lungs flank the heart and great vessels in the chest cavity. ... The trachea (IPA /treikiÉ™/), or windpipe, is a tube extending from the larynx to the bronchi in mammals, and from the pharynx to the syrinx in birds, carrying air to the lungs. ... Diffusion, being the spontaneous spreading of matter (particles), heat, or momentum, is one type of transport phenomena. ...

The basic body plan of A. aurita consists of several parts. The species lack respiratory, excretory, and circulatory systems (Arai, 1997). The adult medusa of A. aurita, with a transparent look, has an umbrella margin membrane and tentacles that are attached to the bottom (Russell, 1953). It has four bright circular gonads that are under the stomach (J.E. Purcell, et al. 2001). Food travels through the muscular manubrium while the radial canals help disperse the food (Russell 1963). There is a middle layer of mesoglea, gastrodervascular cavity with gastrodermis, and epidermis (Solomon, 2002). There is a nerve net that is responsible for contractions in swimming muscles and feeding responses (Aria, 1997). Adult medusa can have a diameter up to 40cm (Arai, 1997). The sexes are can be differentiated between males and females in the medusa stage (Arai, 1997). The young stage, planula, has small ciliated cells and would settle at the bottom of the water where it would change into strobila and then float off as ephyra (Gilbertson, 1999). There is an increasing size from starting stage planula to ephyra, from less than 1 cm in planula stage to 1 cm in ephyra stage (Russell, 1953). Excretion is the biological process by which an organism chemically separates waste products from its body. ... The circulatory system or cardiovascular system is the organ system which circulates blood around the body of most animals. ... The gonad is the organ that makes gametes. ... Sternum or breastbone is a long, flat bone located in the center of the thorax (chest). ... Mesoglea is the clear, inert, jellylike substance that makes up most of the bodies of jellyfish, comb jellies and certain other primitive sea creatures. ... Epidermis could refer to: In plants, the outermost layer of cells covering the leaves and young parts of a plant is the epidermis. ... Nerves (yellow)    Nerves redirects here. ...

Predators

The death of the organism sometimes is brought about after reproduction, leaving the gonads open to infection and degradation (Arai, 1997). A. aurita have been food for a wide variety of predators including the Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola), the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta), and the hydromedusae (Aequorea victoria) (Arai, 1997). Binomial name Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) The Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) is a unique pelagic fish, perhaps the most massive bony fish in the world (but not the longest one; that honor probably goes to the Oarfish, known as the king of herrings). ... Binomial name Caretta caretta Linnaeus, 1758 The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta), is characterized by a large head with blunt jaws. ... Binomial name Aequorea victoria (Murbach and Shearer, 1902) Aequorea victoria is a luminescent jellyfish found off the west coast of North America. ...

Another cause of death is by fisheries of A. aurita for food in countries such as China, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They are hunted by birds also. They defend themselves by stinging with their tentacles (Arai, 1997).

There are possible metazoan parasites that attack A. aurita (Arai, 1997). Phyla Radiata Cnidaria Ctenophora - Comb jellies Bilateria Protostomia Acoelomorpha Platyhelminthes - Flatworms Nemertina - Ribbon worms Gastrotricha Gnathostomulida - Jawed worms Micrognathozoa Rotifera - Rotifers Acanthocephala Priapulida Kinorhyncha Loricifera Entoprocta Nematoda - Roundworms Nematomorpha - Horsehair worms Cycliophora Mollusca - Mollusks Sipuncula - Peanut worms Annelida - Segmented worms Tardigrada - Water bears Onychophora - Velvet worms Arthropoda - Insects, etc. ...

Aurelia aurita interaction

Moon Jellies in an aquarium

Beside from being a source of food for human consumption, A. aurita species also "represent an important step in pelagic organic matter transformations" (Rodriguez, 1996). On the bad side, A. aurita species could ruin the fish markets for human, creating a tidal effect that may hurt the fish population either indirectly or directly by feeding on fish larvae (Arai, 1997). Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 350 KB)Transparent jellyfish on display in an aquarium. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 350 KB)Transparent jellyfish on display in an aquarium. ... Diagram of the layers of the pelagic zone. ...

References

• Arai, M. N.1997. A Functional Biology of Scyphozoa. Chapman and Hall, London, 68-206.
• Gilbertson, L. 1999. Zoology Laboratory Manual 4^th edition. McGraw-Hill Inc, CA, 9.2-9.7.
• Purcell, J. E., W.M. Graham, and H.J. Dumont (Eds.). 2001. Jellyfish Blooms: Ecological and Societal Importance. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 229-273.
• Rees, W. J. 1996. The Cnidaria and Their Evolution. Academic Press Inc, NY, 77-104.
• Rodriguez, R. J. February 1996. "Aurelia aurita (Saucer Jelly, Moon Jelly, Common Sea Jelly Jellyfish) Narrative." [1]
• Russell, F. S. 1953. The Medusae of the British Isles II. Syndics of Cambridge University Press, London, 81-186.
• Solomon, E. P., L. R. Berg, and W. W. Martin. 2002. Biology 6^th edition. Brooks/Cole Publishing, CA, 602-608.
• National Center for Biotechnology Information. October 23, 2001. [2]