New for this summer season at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific is jellies: Phantoms of the Deep, an exhibit about the different types of jellyfish found in the Earth's oceans. jellyfish are amazing creatures that have survived more than 650 million years of Earth's history and can be found in every ocean and sea.
There are roughly 200 jellyfish species but not one of them has a spine or even a brain. They are related to both coral and sea anemones, but they can be beautiful creatures full of color and wildly varying shapes. The Moon jelly can be found in large swarms of other jellyfish that feed on plankton. Lion jellies have tentacles sometimes longer than a whale, while Umbrella jellies are only an inch wide and can survive from the waters of Santa Barbara to Alaska and the Bering Sea.
jellyfish move through the ocean waters with pulsating bodies that are comprised of 95 percent water, protein and mineral salts. jellyfish can be as small as a pencil eraser or have tentacles that reach 100 feet from their squishy bodies. Of the 200 jellyfish species, 70 of them produce stinging cells that will sting a human being. Small poison filled cells Lion's Mane jellyare ejected when a jellyfish comes into contact with another organism. For all of their delicate appearances, jellyfish are predators of shrimp and other small marine animals, using their stinging ability to stun their potential meals.
