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Crystal jelly
ON EXHIBIT
At the Aquarium
Natural History
Graceful and nearly transparent, these jellies have long, delicate tentacles. When disturbed, they give off a green-blue glow because of more than 100 tiny, light-producing organs surrounding its outer bell. They can expand their mouths when feeding to swallow jellies half their size. They’re harvested for their luminescent aequorin, used in neurological and biological experiments to detect calcium.
Conservation
Jellies go with the flow, swimming just a bit, drifting where the currents take them. So all the trash thrown in the ocean is floating along with the jellies and other remarkable species, changing an environment we know little about.
Cool Facts
Crystal jellies are brightly luminescent jellies, with glowing points around the margin of the umbrella. The components required for bioluminescence include a Calcium++ activated photoprotein, called aequorin, that emits a blue-green light, and an accessory green fluorescent protein (GFP), which accepts energy from aequorin and re-emits it as green light.
Scientists have created “green mice” that glow green when hit by blue light by inserting the GFP gene from the crystal jelly into the mice. The glowing protein is a widely used biological highlighter that helps scientists find and study genes more quickly.
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Animal Facts
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ON EXHIBIT
- Scientific Name:
Aequorea victoria
- Habitat:
Open Waters
- Animal Type:
Invertebrates
- Diet:
copepods; however, it tends to favor comb jellies and other hydromedusae
- Size:
bell diameter can grow to 10 inches (25 cm), but usually no larger than 3 inches (8 cm) in Monterey Bay
- Range:
off the west Coast of North America from central California to Vancouver, mainly near Washington and British Columbia
- Relatives:
other hydromedusae, sea anemones, coral; Family: Aequoreidae
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