https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Box jellyfish are often feared as dangerous animals, with some species capable of causing severe or even fatal stings. However, box jellyfish nematocysts—organelles responsible for this toxic sting—are theorized to also play an unexpected role in reproduction. While many studies focus on researching the range of toxicity levels exhibited by the more than 50 species of box jellyfish, their reproductive process is poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jellyfish-reveal-secret-life-implications.html Plants & Animals Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news699533821 Finding highly venomous box jellyfish that are almost invisible in water is not an easy task—but researching them is crucial so that we can learn how to safely avoid them. Stings from these "sea-wasps" are extremely painful and can be fatal. Knowing more about box jellyfish helps us know where to expect them, when to expect them, and how we can minimize the risk of encountering them while out for what should be a pleasant swim. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-species-venomous-jellyfish-singapore.html Plants & Animals Fri, 15 May 2026 08:49:22 EDT news698053742 When most people think about biodiversity in lakes and rivers, they imagine fish, plants, or perhaps birds and amphibians. But beneath the surface exists another world that often goes unnoticed: microscopic parasites that quietly shape aquatic ecosystems in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-uncover-hidden-parasite-diversity.html Ecology Thu, 07 May 2026 18:00:08 EDT news697365840 Researchers have reported the discovery of a new species of jellyfish, Malagazzia michelin, marking only the second species of its genus ever found in Japanese waters. Led by Takato Izumi of Fukuyama University, the discovery was a collaborative effort between marine biologists and staff from several prominent institutions, including the Tsuruoka City Kamo Aquarium and the Saikai National Park Kuju-kushima Aquarium. The study is published in ZooKeys. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-michelin-star-jellyfish-japanese-aquaria.html Plants & Animals Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:20:02 EST news691236322 A student-led research group from Tohoku University has discovered a new species of the venomous Physalia (commonly known as Portuguese man-of-war) that has never been seen before in northeast Japan. This revelation suggests that warming coastal waters and shifting ocean currents are influencing the distribution of marine organisms in northeastern Japan. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-japan-jellyfish-species-samurai-warrior.html Plants & Animals Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:20:02 EDT news681123712 A study from the University of Vienna reveals that sea anemones use a molecular mechanism known from bilaterian animals to form their back-to-belly body axis. This mechanism ("BMP shuttling") enables cells to organize themselves during development by interpreting signaling gradients. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-bodybuilding-ancient-sea-anemone.html Evolution Mon, 16 Jun 2025 08:52:04 EDT news669282721 One of the biggest mysteries of evolution is how species first developed complex vision. Jellyfish are helping scientists solve this puzzle, as the group has independently evolved eyes at least nine separate times. Different species of jellyfish have strikingly different types of vision, from simple eyespots that detect light intensity to sophisticated lens eyes similar to those in humans. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-genome-eyed-jellyfish-insight-evolution.html Evolution Tue, 10 Jun 2025 10:55:04 EDT news668771702 A research team has published a description of a rare medusa found at a depth of 812 meters. The animal has been sighted only twice in a deep-sea volcanic structure called Sumisu Caldera, in the Ogasawara Islands. The gelatinous animal with a diameter of about 10 cm and a red stomach resembling the Cross of St. George when seen from above is Santjordia pagesi, a newly described species of medusa. Medusae are a type of free-swimming, umbrella-shaped jellyfish with a reduced stalk. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-species-jellyfish-remote-japan.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Feb 2024 13:28:03 EST news626362081 A study in the journal Cell sheds new light on the evolution of neurons, focusing on the placozoans, a millimeter-sized marine animal. Researchers at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in these unique and ancient creatures may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-tiny-sea-creatures-reveal-ancient.html Evolution Tue, 19 Sep 2023 11:00:01 EDT news614333387 The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announces the oldest swimming jellyfish in the fossil record with the newly named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis. These findings are announced in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-oldest-species-jellyfish.html Evolution Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:00:01 EDT news610100880 A trio of biologists, two with the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland, the third with Universitat de Barcelona, in Spain, has found that a type of Cnidaria is capable of associative learning. Gaelle Botton-Amiot, Simon Sprecher and Pedro Martinez published their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-starlet-sea-anemones-capable-associative.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:50:01 EDT news599737534 Despite the long, dangerous journey depicted in Pixar's "Finding Nemo," clownfish (and other species of anemonefish) are, in real life, deeply attached to their underwater homes. As young larvae, anemonefish choose a giant sea anemone—tentacled creatures from the phyla Cnidaria—to settle on, remaining there for the rest of their lives. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-tentacles-giant-sea-anemones-reveal.html Evolution Thu, 20 Oct 2022 11:14:08 EDT news585483244 The cnidocytes—or stinging cells—that are characteristic of sea anemones, hydrae, corals and jellyfish, and make us careful of our feet while wading in the ocean, are also an excellent model for understanding the emergence of new cell types, according to new Cornell research. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-jellyfish-cells-clues-emergence-cell.html Evolution Thu, 12 May 2022 13:07:08 EDT news571579623 The deep-sea crown jelly Atolla is one of the most common residents of the ocean's midnight zone. Its bell has a signature scarlet color and bears one tentacle much longer than the rest. So 15 years ago, when MBARI researchers spotted a jelly that looked like Atolla, but lacked the telltale trailing tentacle, their curiosity was piqued. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-scientists-species-deep-sea-crown-jelly.html Plants & Animals Tue, 19 Apr 2022 15:00:02 EDT news569598976 A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution maps out for the first time how Hydra, which are a group of small aquatic animals, can regenerate their own heads by changing the way that their genes are regulated, known as epigenetics. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-hydra-animals-regenerate.html Evolution Wed, 08 Dec 2021 12:40:04 EST news558187495 Body axes are molecular coordinate systems along which regulatory genes are activated. These genes then activate the development of anatomical structures in correct locations in the embryo. Thus, the body ensures that we do not develop arms on our heads or ears on our backs. In many organisms, the main body axis is regulated by the β-catenin signaling pathway. In a new article in Nature Communications, a research group led by Grigory Genikhovich at the University of Vienna has found that the way the main body axis of sea anemones is patterned by different intensities of β-catenin signaling is similar to that of sea urchins and vertebrates. This suggests that this axial patterning mechanism already existed about 650 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-evolution-axial-patterning.html Evolution Tue, 29 Jun 2021 12:09:32 EDT news544187213 Researchers have perfected the recipe for keeping sea anemone and coral cells alive in a petri dish for up to 12 days. The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has important applications to study everything from evolutionary biology to human health. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-scientists-breakthrough-culturing-corals-sea.html Ecology Thu, 25 Feb 2021 03:05:32 EST news533444722 To sting or not to sting? For jellyfish, that is the question whenever their tentacles brush up against anything, including millions of human swimmers around the world. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-scientists-jellyfish.html Plants & Animals Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:27:22 EST news532258039 In animals, releasing eggs in a timely manner is vital to maximize the chances of successful fertilization. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-jellyfish-egg-production.html Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 03 Mar 2020 15:47:43 EST news502472859 Little red jellies are commonplace near the deep seafloor in Monterey Bay and around the world. Most of them are small—less than five centimeters (two inches) across—and a ruddy red color, but we know little else about them. Though MBARI researchers have observed them for decades, their role in the food web, what they eat, and what eats them, still largely remain mysteries. Now scientists are finding that even their evolution and relationships to one another are probably incorrect. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-mysterious-red-jellies-case-mistaken.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:20:01 EST news498476109 In recent years, scientists have teased out many of the secrets of biomineralization, the process by which sea urchins grow spines, mollusks build their shells and corals make their skeletons, not to mention how mammals and other animals make bones and teeth. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-biominerals-nature-recipe-evolved.html Archaeology Tue, 20 Aug 2019 07:10:49 EDT news485503837 The tube anemone Isarachnanthus nocturnus is only 15 cm long but has the largest mitochondrial genome of any animal sequenced to date, with 80,923 base pairs. The human mitochondrial genome (mitogenome), for example, comprises 16,569 base pairs. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-tube-anemone-largest-animal-mitochondrial.html Evolution Tue, 11 Jun 2019 12:55:29 EDT news479476523 Accomplishing perhaps a world first, researchers at Columbia University and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have mapped the full-body muscular activity of an animal while it was moving and behaving. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-nervous-behavior-muscle-hydra-insight.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 23 May 2019 11:00:11 EDT news477809148 The tube-dwelling anemone is an ancient sea creature that resembles a prehistoric flower. The animals live slow, long and predictable lifestyles and look fairly similar from species to species. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-simple-sea-anemones.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 Apr 2019 11:17:39 EDT news475237049 Jellyfish undergo an amazing metamorphosis, from tiny polyps growing on the seafloor to swimming medusae with stinging tentacles. This shape-shifting has served them well, shepherding jellyfish through more than 500 million years of mass extinctions on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2018-12-jellyfish-genome-reveals-ancient-complex.html Plants & Animals Mon, 03 Dec 2018 11:00:15 EST news463043162 Researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have opened a window on another piece of evolutionary biology. They have found that Hox genes, which are key regulators of the way the bodies of bilaterally symmetrical animals form, also play a role in controlling the radially symmetric body plan of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. https://phys.org/news/2018-09-probes-ancient-body-code.html Evolution Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:00:02 EDT news457252693 A study in the journal Bulletin of Marine Science describes a new, blood-red species of octocoral found in Panama. The species in the genus Thesea was discovered in the threatened low-light reef environment on Hannibal Bank, 60 kilometers off mainland Pacific Panama, by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama (STRI) and the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR) at the University of Costa Rica. https://phys.org/news/2018-09-soft-coral-species-panama.html Plants & Animals Fri, 14 Sep 2018 16:05:14 EDT news456159899 Despite its apparent simplicity, a tube-like body topped with tentacles, the sea anemone is actually a highly complex creature. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with the CNRS, have just discovered over 100 cell types in this small marine invertebrate as well as incredible neuronal diversity. This surprising complexity was revealed when the researchers built a real cell atlas of the animal. Their findings, which will add to discussions on how cells have diversified and developed into organs during evolution, have been published in the journal Cell. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-cellular-diversity-sea-anemone.html Biotechnology Tue, 10 Jul 2018 06:22:57 EDT news450422569 Mucus is able to protect us from infection thanks to ancient genes that have been conserved throughout 350 million years of evolution—dating back to our days as a jellyfish. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-jellyfish-infection.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 09 Jul 2018 10:22:59 EDT news450350560 Many animals use venom to protect themselves from predators and to catch prey. Some, like jellyfish, have tentacles, while others, like bees and snakes use stingers and fangs to inject their prey with venomous toxins. https://phys.org/news/2018-03-jellyfish-venom-accommodate-prey-sea.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Mar 2018 08:06:13 EST news439459559