The Oldest Animals: Comb Jellyfishes, Not Sponges
	This new finding has come like a shock: the world's most primitive multicellular animals still living are not the sponges, but a more complex animal. The research carried out at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in the journal "Nature" revealed that the comb jellyfish, which has tissues and a nervous system, diverged from other animals before the tissue-less and nerveless sponge, regarded so far as the earl ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 04:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Jellyfish Attack: One Solution
	Jellyfish inhabit most warm and temperate seas. Over 900 species are known (the Mediterranean Sea alone harbors 180 species). In tropical regions, some jellyfish may inhabit even freshwaters. Usually they are solitary, but sometimes gather in huge numbers, forming "jellyfish soups". In Florida, during the estival season, from March to September, one in four swimmers gets out of the water with burnings caused by jell ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2008, 16:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Oldest Known Jellyfish: 505 Million Years Old
	Imagine you find your grandma's jelly fossilized hundreds of millions of years later… Such an unusual find took place in Utah: the oldest till now discovered fossil of a jellyfish, over 500 million years old. Such soft-bodied animals rarely leave behind fossils, unlike animals with hard shells or skeletons (bones or crusts). "The fossil record is biased against soft-bodied life forms such as jellyfish, because they leav ... [read more >>]
	01 November 2007, 04:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

12-Headed Jellyfish Created in the Lab
	They have not created a 3-headed dragon yet, but by now scientists have managed to make a jellyfish with a dozen heads by carefully monkeying with a few genes. This experiment could explain how natural colonies of other multi-headed organisms first emerged, like that of the reef building corals. Researchers focused on the so-called Cnox genes, which control the embryonic development of the jellyfish. The closely related Hox g ... [read more >>]
	01 August 2007, 03:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Worm-Like Jellyfish
	A worm was believed to be a relatively evolved organism, with at least a defined gut and nervous system. But a new finding could redefine the notion of a worm. A new detailed DNA analysis has revealed that Buddenbrockia plumatellae, which looks and behaves like a worm, is actually related to jellyfish, sea anemones and hydras. This also challenges conventional knowledge about the evolution of animal body plans. But cnidarians (jellyfish ... [read more >>]
	10 July 2007, 05:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Snacks Made of Giant Jellyfish
	Jellyfish do not have the "common sense" to always show themselves in the size of a (little) plate. Sometimes they can be enormous monsters, 2m (6 ft) in diameter and 200 kg (450 pounds) heavy. This is the case of the Nemopilema nomurai. Such monsters can easily break fishing nets and kill the fish captured inside them. But when there is an invasion of millions of such beasts, things turn really nasty. This is the problem fac ... [read more >>]
	03 July 2007, 09:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Jellyfish with Human-Like Eyes
	Have you ever wondered why jellyfish are transparent? Because the body wall of these primitive creatures is formed just of two layers of cells... But even so, they come with surprising characters for such simple creatures... For example, the highly venomous box jellyfish has a set of special eyes, similar to the human eyes own, that enable them to avoid obstacles as they swim close to the ocean floor. Unlike the true jellyfish, ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 04:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia