If I remember correctly, these are in a large floor-to-ceiling case right by the entrance to the Scott Aquarium. The way they contrast with the blue background and lighting in the display really makes them pop. A favorite photo-op in a fantastic zoo. This particular species is the Pacific Sea Nettle (also known as West Coast sea nettles, in the class Scyphozoa, that of the jellies called true jellies). The genus name of sea nettle jellies, Chrysaora, comes from Greek mythology. Chrysaor, reportedly a giant, was the son of Poseidon and Medusa. His name translates as ^golden falchion^. A falchion was a commonly used curved fighting sword that could cut through armor, a reference to the stinging ability of these jellies. The West Coast sea nettle species name, fuscescens, means dusky or dark referring to the dusky color of the nettles bell.

Jellyfish are equipped with hydrostatic skeletons, which sound like they might have been invented by Iron Man, but are actually an innovation that evolution hit on hundreds of millions of years ago. Essentially, the bell of a jellyfish is a fluid-filled cavity surrounded by circular muscles; the jelly contracts its muscles, squirting water in the opposite direction from where it wishes to go. Jellyfish are not the only animals to possess hydrostatic skeletons; they can also be found in starfish, earthworms, and various other invertebrates. Jellies can also move along ocean currents, thus sparing themselves the effort of undulating their bells.

Weirdly, box jellies, or cubozoans, are equipped with as many as two dozen eyes (not primitive, light-sensing patches of cells, as in some other marine invertebrates), eyeballs composed of lenses, retinas, and corneas. These eyes are paired around the circumference of their bells, one pointing upward, one pointing downward. This gives some box jellies a 360-degree range of vision, the most sophisticated visual sensing apparatus in the animal kingdom. Of course, these eyes are used to detect prey and avoid predators, but their main function is to keep the box jelly properly oriented in the water.

Just a little fun info about jellies for anyone interested.

-nik

Very nice composition, Jeff! You did a great job!

Those are really pretty coloured jellyfish and well captured