Giant, deadly jellyfish baffles scientists
Giant, deadly jellyfish baffles scientists


Researchers caught a new species of jellyfish off Australia's northwest coast in 2013 — and they still can't explain it.
The Keesingia gigas is a recently discovered type of Irukandji jellyfish — but unlike its fingernail-sized cousins, Keesingia gigas is about the length of a human arm. Like all Irukandji jellyfish, it carries a potentially fatal venom that can cause pain, nausea, even stroke or heart failure. That's scary, but explainable. What's head scratching is that no specimen of Keesingia gigas has ever been photographed or collected with tentacles.
The discoverer of the species and director of Australia's Marine Stinger Advisory Services Lisa-ann Gershwin spoke to The Guardian about why this is so baffling:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Jellyfish always have tentacles... that's how they catch their food," she said. "The tentacles are where they concentrate their stinging cells."
...Gershwin said the species could shed its tentacles as a means of defense, like some bioluminescent jellyfish that drop their glowing tentacles in order to distract predators, but there was no evidence that any Irukandji had that capability. [The Guardian]
Gershwin later hypothesized that perhaps just the specimens they've seen don't have tentacles, before adding "I just don't know what it is."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Nico Lauricella was editor-in-chief at TheWeek.com. He was formerly the site's deputy editor and an editor at The Huffington Post.
-
How will Wall Street react to the Trump-Powell showdown?
Today's Big Question 'Market turmoil' seems likely
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Google ruled a monopoly over ad tech dominance
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling as a 'landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
El Salvador's CECOT prison becomes Washington's go-to destination
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republicans and Democrats alike are clamoring for access to the Trump administration's extrajudicial deportation camp — for very different reasons
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant world
Speed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocket
Speed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists map miles of wiring in mouse brain
Speed Read Researchers have created the 'largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date,' said Nature
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists genetically revive extinct 'dire wolves'
Speed Read A 'de-extinction' company has revived the species made popular by HBO's 'Game of Thrones'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Dark energy may not doom the universe, data suggests
Speed Read The dark energy pushing the universe apart appears to be weakening
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 years
Speed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists report optimal method to boil an egg
Speed Read It takes two temperatures of water to achieve and no fancy gadgets
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energy
Speed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
By Peter Weber, The Week US