The Illuminating World of the Ctenophore
Ctenophores are absolutely beautiful creatures. Known as comb jellies, they use eight longitudinal rows of cilia for locomotion. When the cilia beat, light is scattered, producing a rainbow of colors.
Sticky Business
All comb jellies are carnivores. Sometimes they use sticky structures on long thin tentacles to capture prey. Once they snag prey, the comb jellies contract their tentacles to pass the food to their mouth. Another group of comb jellies, called lobates, have a pair of sticky, expandable lobes for capturing prey. A third group, species like Beroe, engulf their prey in their mouths. They are voracious predators that even prey on other comb jellies.
Comb jellies are abundant throughout the ocean from pole to pole, from the surface to very deep in the ocean. The majority live in the water column but some are bottom dwellers.
While there are approximately two hundred described species, it’s likely there are many more.
A Uniquely Sticky Situation
Comb jellies have many features that other animals don’t have, for example, their sticky cells are unique to them. And comb jellies have muscles and a relatively advanced nervous system that works differently from other animal, as well. They are alien in many ways. Currently, scientists have discovered they now displace sponges as the first animal on the Tree of Life. Perhaps they took their own evolutionary pathway.
To learn more:
https://www.earthlife.net/inverts/ctenophora.html
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/invertebrates/comb-jelly
