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Jellyfish Facts & Worksheets

Jellyfish are jelly-like aquatic creatures that existed even before the age of dinosaurs.

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Jellyfish are jelly-like aquatic creatures that existed even before the age of dinosaurs. They live in both cold and warm waters as well as deep and shallow coastlines. Jellyfish may vary in color from transparent to blue, purple, or yellow while many are bioluminescent.

See the fact file below for more information on the Jellyfish or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Jellyfish worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Jelly Body Parts

  • Phylum: Cnidaria
  • Class: Scyphozoa
  • Classification: Invertebrate
  • Lifespan: One year
  • Average Weight: Up to 2 kg
  • Body size: 2 cm to 2 m
  • Diet: Shrimp, fish, crab, small plants
  • Habitat: Oceans and freshwater lakes
  • An adult jellyfish is called Medusa after the Greek monster Medusa who had snakes for hair.
  • Jellyfish are made up of a smooth, bag-like body with stinging tentacles. Their tentacles are composed of stinging cells called cnidoblasts to stun and paralyze prey.
  • They have no brain, heart, limbs, bones or senses like a nose or eyes. At the center of its body, a small opening serves as a primitive mouth, which both eats and discards waste. Their mouth and digestive tubes are surrounded with tiny oral or mouth arms. Jellyfish digest their food immediately so they can float in water and not sink.
  • Most jellyfish have bioluminescent organs, which emit light. Such ability helps them to attract prey or distract predators including sea turtles and other creatures.
  • Aside from stings, its transparent body serves as a defense mechanism.
  • Since they do not have brains, jellyfish have a basic nervous system comprised of receptors that help them detect light and vibrations under water.
  • In addition, jellyfish can regenerate when injured.
  • Approximately 95% of their body is made up of water.

Stingy Life

  • There are male and female jellyfish, though hermaphroditic species also exist. Jellyfish are capable to produce offspring both asexually and sexually.
  • Moreover, different types of jellyfish have babies differently. Some eggs are shot out of the mouth to fertilize outside the body, while others carry eggs in the mouth until they develop.
  • Most of its kind are passive carnivores, meaning they feed on plankton, crustaceans, fish eggs, small fish and other jellyfish that float into them.
  • Their common predators are sharks, tuna, sea turtles and Pacific salmon.
  • Jellyfish are considered one of the oldest multi-organ animals.
  • Moon jellyfish are normally found on the shores of North America and Europe. They live in approximately six-meter-deep water and are typically blue or pink in color.
  • Natural collagen is made from harvested jellyfish.
  • A group of jellyfish is called a swarm, smack or bloom.
  • Today, there are over 2,000 different types of jellyfish, with almost 70 that can hurt people.
  • In the 1990s, about 900 million tons of jellyfish dominated the Black Sea, which had a bad effect on the tourism and fishing industries.
  • Every year, over 150 million people around the world are stung by jellyfish.
  • In 2002, an American tourist died after being stung by an Irukandji jellyfish in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Jellyfish Sting Symptoms, Causes and Prevention

  • Here are some common signs and symptoms of a jellyfish sting:
  • Prickling, burning and stinging pain.
  • Red, brown and purplish streak of tentacles on the skin.
  • Swelling and itching.
  • When jellyfish stings are severe, a person may feel the following:
    • Abdominal pain, vomiting, and nausea.
    • Headache with muscle pains and spasm.
    • Drowsiness and fainting.
    • Difficulty in breathing.
  • Jellyfish tentacles are equipped with microscopic barbed stingers with bulbs that hold venom. It serves as their main defense mechanism against predators and danger.
  • When a tentacle contacts human skin, it releases a stinger which penetrates the skin and releases venom. It affects the skin on contact and may possibly enter the bloodstream.
  • Among the most harmful to humans are box jellyfish, Portuguese man-o-war, sea nettle, and lion’s mane jellyfish.
  • In order to avoid being stung by jellyfish, people should wear protective suits like skin suits and stinger suits and avoid swimming and diving in jellyfish-infested areas.
  • The box jellyfish is a unique type of jellyfish with 24 eyes, 60 anal regions and four parallel brains. Its venom is considered one of the deadliest in the world as it attacks the nervous system. They are also called sea wasps and marine stingers, which are normally found in the waters of Northern Australia and the Indo-Pacific.
  • Due to frequent stinging incidents in Australia, scientists have developed an antivenom for box jellyfish stings.

Jellyfish Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Jellyfish across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Jellyfish worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Jellyfish which are jelly-like aquatic creatures that existed even before the age of dinosaurs. They live in both cold and warm waters as well as deep and shallow coastlines. Jellyfish may vary in color from transparent to blue, purple, or yellow while many are bioluminescent.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Jellyfish Facts
  • Types of Jellyfish
  • Jellyfish Anatomy
  • Jellyfish Life Cycle
  • Venomous Jellyfish
  • Largest Jellyfish
  • All About Sea Jellies
  • Fill In
  • Scientific Classification
  • Sting Symptoms
  • Treating Jellies

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Link will appear as Jellyfish Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, June 25, 2018

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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