Turritopsis: The Immortal Jellyfish

Humans have never found the fountain of youth – but a jellyfish has!  Turritopsis is a jellyfish that is found in most of the world’s oceans.  It starts life as a little tiny larvae that is too small for you to see without a microscope.  It floats in the ocean until it finds a nice patch of seafloor.  Then it settles down and grows into a colony that is attached to rocks on the bottom of the ocean.  A part of the colony will then bud off to grow into a jellyfish that will float through the surface oceans and eat other jellyfish.  It this jellyfish gets old and sick or if it is injured by predators it has a crazy adaptation.  It can actually get younger!  It can go through a reverse aging process in which it reverts to being a polyp again living on the ocean floor.  Then when it gets stronger it can become a jellyfish again.  Imagine if when you get old you could just choose to become a child again.  Turritopsis can do this growing and then reverse aging again and again to possibly live forever!