● Anchored Life › Jellies

BFJ

Profile

Reference

Dactylbrachia gigas, the behemoth finger-legged jelly. A massive specimen with no Earthly analog.
1. Jellylike body plan
Even the largest terrestrial jellies are anatomically simple, with a gelatinous bell, a central stomach, and tentacles. By contrast, the BFJ (an acronym for Behemoth Finger-Legged Jelly) has complex organs and a sophisticated nervous system.
2. Gas bladders
Most of the BFJ's volume is occupied by gas bladders, controlled by a net of distributed nerves that automatically regulate buoyancy. Sedentary BFJs resting on the seafloor flood their gas bladders with seawater.
3. Multiple eyespot
The BFJ's eyes are differentiated into small, sharp-focus eyes and large wide-field arrays. They focus exclusively upward. Fine muscles in the rhopalia (eye clusters) can adjust the eye to focus through different classes of seawater and even air - suggesting the BFJ spends time at the surface of the sea.
4. Muscular arms
Unlike the trailing tentacles of most jellies, the BFJ's arms are muscular hydrostats like squid arms. Covered in finely developed sensory hairs, they do not seem to be used for predation. Instead, they seek out chemical resources in the seafloor. Methane-sensing organs are particularly dense at the tips of the arms.
5. Exhaustion
The index BFJ scanned by the user seems to be feeding on sunlight while awaiting an unknown future state in its life cycle.
Assessment: possibly the sea-bound state of an airborne organism.

Loading discussion...