Turritopsis nutricula, a type of jellyfish, is gaining notoriety for its uncanny and unprecedented capacity to de-evolve instead of dying.  These jellyfish are the first evidenced metazoan, or multi-celled creature, to demonstrate the ability to revert back to a colonial stage after reaching sexual maturity. After sexually reproducing, most animals inevitably die. Turritopis nutrricula, however, undergo a transformation in which they return to a stage of sexual immaturity after reproducing, only to mature and reproduce again, then return to sexual immaturity, and so on. What does this mean? Turritopis nutricula do not die, by nature, and are believed to have an indefinite potential lifespan.

When sexually mature, these jellyfish are about 5 mm in diameter, or about as big as a human pinky nail. They have anywhere from eight to twenty-four tentacles when they are young and up to 90 tentacles as mature adults. Shaped like a bell, their external walls are transparent and their stomachs are large and have a distinctive red color.

Turritopsis revert from sexually mature to colonial though two processes: cell transformation and cell transdifferentiation, or the ability of one cell to transform into a completely different type of cell. By transdifferentiating, these cells are able to change their entire make-up, much like the much-publicized stem cells. After sexually reproducing, the jellyfish reabsorbs all of its external parts and turns into a cyst, which looks like an ameba-esque blob. The cyst then attaches to the ground and grows into a stalk-shaped polyp colony. These polyps begin a new cycle, where they form into mature jellyfish – all genetically identical. They then break away to perpetuate this cycle again and again, ad infinitum.

The application of a study of the Turritopsis nutricula could be boundless, as stem-cell research appears at the forefront of many medical studies on organ reproduction, cancer treatments, and brain injury treatments to name a few. By using the cells of the jellyfish, which transdifferentiate, scientists can continue to research solutions for these problems without mucking about in the moral dilemmas that come with researching embryonic stem cells. The jellyfish’s cells are also similar in make to cancer cells, which are able to affect the order and process of genetic systems. By studying these cells, scientists may be able to gain insight in the never-ending search for a cure for cancer. These jellyfish, rumored to be plotting world-domination, are in fact spreading in droves. What some scientists now refer to as a “widespread invasion” could affect the structure and functionality of the oceanic ecosystem. It is believed that they spread when the jellyfish stow away in the ballast tanks of large ships and are carried from place to place. This is a major pathway for the global spread of “invasive” species. Native to the Caribbean, these jellyfish are now being found in waters surrounding Italy and Spain, Japan, Panama, and even Florida. It’s anyone’s guess where they end up next.