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How do jellyfish get their food?
Jellyfish have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat them. Inside their bell-shaped body is an opening that is its mouth. They eat and discard waste from this opening. Jellyfish digest their food very quickly.
What structures do jellyfish have?
They are composed of three layers: an outer layer, called the epidermis; a middle layer made of a thick, elastic, jelly-like substance called mesoglea; and an inner layer, called the gastrodermis. An elementary nervous system, or nerve net, allows jellyfish to smell, detect light, and respond to other stimuli.
What adaptations do jellyfish have?
Jellyfish bodies are transparent, or see-through, which allows them to be less visible to potential threats. They have long tentacles, which are flexible limbs, that have multiple purposes, including acting as arms to grab food. Their tentacles have nematocysts, which are stinging cells that can be used to attack.
What part of a jellyfish can you eat?
Some commercially processed edible jellyfish are purveyed in dried sheets. The process of producing dehydrated jellyfish typically includes the removal of the tentacles prior to drying, because the upper dome area of the marine animal is the part typically used for cooking.
How are jellyfish able to find their food?
Their bodies aren’t very complex but they do have a stomach and intestines. They are carnivores which means that they eat other living creatures. They tend to rely on the current of the water and the wind to help them find food. They trap food in their tentacles and then move it to their mouth.
What kind of cells does a jellyfish have?
Each tentacle is covered with cells called ‘cnidocytes’ (a type of venomous cell unique to the phylum ‘Cnidaria’), that can sting or kill other animals. Most jellyfish use these cells to secure prey or for defence.
How are the arms of a jellyfish used?
However, a few species of jellies have nematocysts covering the oral arms too, which is used to stun the prey. Most Jellyfish do not have enough toxin in the oral arms to effectively paralyze the prey; thus, oral arms are generally used to transfer food from the tentacles to the mouth. Ingesting and Digesting the Food The Mouth/ Digestive Tube
Where are the tentacles of a jellyfish located?
Most beach-goers are familiar with the tentacles of the jellies, but only a few can define the fuzzy-looking part of the Jellyfish’s body that trails away from the body, right next to the tentacles- these are the oral arms of the Jellyfish (not additional tentacles).