Sunny Side Up Fried Egg Jellyfish
I'm going off brand here for a moment so I can participate in the April Carnival and discuss one of my favorite unconventional animals, the fried egg jellyfish. (Don't worry, I found a way to tie it the spring season.)
I found out about this animal looking at weird animals, a thing I sometimes do. I spend a lot of time reading about cats because I have one and I'm keen to understand them better, but sometimes I jump down a rabbit hole and read about other species.
Why do I like them? Egg.
They are called fried egg jellyfish because they look like fried eggs - even when they don't look exactly like fried eggs, they look like someone tried to cook scrambled eggs and gave up halfway.
The "yolk" is a central yellow dome surrounded by a translucent white fringe. Their sting is mild and harmless to humans. In some photos (not these) you'll often see a swarm of small fish and crabs hanging out between the yolk and whites using it as a protective shield against predators or to hitchhike and GTFO.
Fried egg jellyfish are one of the few jellyfish that can swim on purpose. Most jellyfish drift with the current but these little dudes have a pulsing feature that allow them to navigate. Despite that, they're still famously clumsy and bump into swimmers and each other. Clumsy Egg is the title of my autobiography.
Another distinct feature: While most jellyfish have long trailing ribbon-like tentacles, the fried egg jellyfish has short arms that end in bright purple and blue knobs.
Now let's get into the season! Jellyfish are asexual. During winter and early spring they clone themselves repeatedly on the sea floor as polyps (the larval stage of a jellyfish resembling a sea anemone).
Spring is the "growth spurt" phase for babies. Starting in May, they grow 3-4cm per week to reach full egg presentation by July. They spend a lot of time near the surface of the water so the tiny algae that live inside their tissues can photosynthesize and promote the energy for that growth spurt. Fried egg jellyfish babies look like snowflakes or gears with a small egg yolk in the middle.
If spring starts cold, breakfast is delayed. They are very particular and wait until temperatures reach ~55-60°F (13-15°C).
^ this one is a baby
Some random fun facts:
- They're part of a well-balanced marine breakfast for sea turtles, large fish, sea birds, large crabs, and... other jellyfish. Humans don't eat them; they would dissolve so fast if you tried and apparently taste like salty slime.
- They don't have brains (like all jellyfish) - instead, they have a nerve net. The nerves are woven into their skin and tentacles and they can sense light, smell/taste, and feel vibrations.
- The "yolk" is called a subumbrella and contains the digestive system and algae.
- They can reach up to 15-16 inches in diameter (imagine eating a giant egg instead of a pizza).
- They live fast and die young; their entire lifecycle usually lasts less than half a year.
Want to read more? Here's where I got some info & pictures for this post:
- Fried Egg Jellyfish
- What Exactly Is: Fried Egg Jellyfish | The Drifting Breakfast
- Fried Egg Jellyfish Are Kind of Adorable & That’s No Yolk
- Fried Egg Jellyfish Facts
- Fried Egg Jellyfish
I truly love an animal that looks like it was badly drawn, so there were many other options on my list for this post. Notable mentions:
- bat-eared fox
- maned wolf
- penis snake
- potoo
- irawaddy dolphins
- sacabambaspis fish (extinct)
- lesula monkey
- shoebill
- stargazer fish
- mouse deer
- tibetan sand fox
- black rain frogs
Maybe one of them will show up in the carnival posts?