The Largest Jellyfish, Lion’s Mane Jellyfish
The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish is a massive creature. The largest recorded Lion’s Mane is 7 feet, 6 inches long with 120 foot tentacles is even longer then a blue whale. It is very common to see Lion’s Mane Jellyfish as large as household freezers. With it’s long tentacles, the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish is perhaps longest animal on earth.
Normally found living in the waters of the Northern Atlanic, Northern Pacific an Arctic regions, the Lion’s Mane like’s the higher latitudes however; similar types of jellyfish can be found in the waters just outside of Australia and New Zealand but rarely further south of the 42 degrees north latitude.
The Lion’s Mane jellyfish ranges in size. Although large Lion’s Mane with 8 foot bells are found in the Northern waters, relatively smaller ones can be found in the Southern water. The tentacles of the Lion’s Mane are sticky, grouped in large clusters of 8, each large cluster containing more then 100 tentacle strands arranged in a series of rows. The giant size of the Lion’s mane may scare you however; it is not too dangerous. Although stings can cause redness and temporary pain, they are not fatal.
The bell shaped body of the Lion’s Mane jellyfish has eight divisions, or lobes, that make it look like an eight pointed star. A complicated arrangement of its colorful arms radiate from the bell’s center which are shorter than the thinner tentacles which come out of the bell’s subumbrella. Size has a lot to do with the colors of the Lion’s Mane jellyfish - smaller specimens tend to be a light orange or tan, while the larger specimens range from a bright crimson to a darker purple.
The lifespan of a Lion’s Mane jellyfish is about one year. They prefer to settle in sheltered bays that are shallow as they approach the end of life. The Lion’s Mane jellyfish is a coldwater species and can’t thrive and grow very large in warmer waters. Due to it’s large size, in open waters, the Lion’s Mane provides food and shelter for other marine life such as Shrimps, small prow fish, Butter fish, medusa fish, harvest fish and more who treat it as a floating oasis. They Lion’s mane survives mostly on moon jellyfish, small fish, ctenophores and zoo plankton. It’s predators including other jellyfish, sea turtles, sea birds and larger fish.
Learn more about Jellyfish today! There is alot of information about many interesting jellyfish species at JellyfishFacts.Net including a large collection of Jellyfish Pictures.
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