I’m just a simple 18 year old guy and zoology student that posts random factoids about obscure animals and general animal science/zoology/biology stuff so if you like animals this is the place for you, if you only like cute animals this is not the place for you… I also like astronomy and some weirdos from youtube called the creatures so I’m prone to reblog stuff about that too because this techically is a personal blog...
Disclamer: none of the pictures are mine unless stated
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
How do jellyfish sting?
the science of cnidocytes and nematocysts
jellyfish don’t sting through electricity or by touch. Jellyfish sting through a special type of cell called a Cnidocyte, there are three types of cnidocytes currently known. Spirocysts which entangle their prey, Ptychocysts which build tubes for tube anemones and the most well known Nematocysts. Nematocysts consist of a toxic barb which is coiled on a thread inside the cindocyte, when triggered the barb is ejected almost instantly taking only 700 nanoseconds to fire and firing with a force of five million g’s. A cindoctye can only fire once, and must be replaced when fired a process that could take 2 days.
When I was 13 and scuba diving i got stung more times than I can remember by jelly fish… the most memorable incident i...