Baby Jellies

Where do baby jellyfish come from? If you're a jellyfish, ask your parents. Well, maybe we won't answer that one in detail, but it is certainly the case that the life cycle of the jellyfish is slightly complicated. The jellyfish shape that we normally think of (the "medusa") is the adult form. However, those medusas are most often serially produced by (and detach from) jelly polyps, which resemble sea anemones. I took this photo two tiny jelly polyps at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They were attached to the side of a tank full of upside-down jellies. These are extremely small, and it's only because of the "Super Macro" mode on my camera that I was able to get a good photo-- they are each about half an inch across. It's only coincidence that they appear to be hanging upside down-- if the jellies were to detach now, they would end up right side up.