>Excuse me, apparantly it turns out that most jellyfish consist,
corporeally, of about 95% water (though some sources claim for it to be as high
as 98%), with the rest of what's in there being mostly just trace elements.<
Mmm... 95% might just make the cut I
suppose, though I still would love to see some well-controlled measurements,
but anything less than the osmotic pressure of seawater I would want to see some
serious physiological explanations as well as figures. And the Med is a pretty
salty stretch of water, especially in the East. Without ever having tried to
establish anything of the kind, I would have expected 90% to be nearer the
mark. The trace element idea doesn’t hold water as stated. Apart from organic
material, I would expect appropriate quantities of the macronutrients such as N,
Mg, P, S, K, Ca, Fe, and of course Na and Cl. The total trace element content
shouldn’t be more than a few hundred ppm.
>And believe me, they dissolve rapidly; I once left a freshly dead
jellyfish in the shower (I was a strange child), which within less than an
hour's time left not a trace of itself to be found but a slightly viscous
liquid and an astronomically rancorous stench.<
Well, strange children make strange discoveries. Or so I am told...
I cannot remember who told me...
However, I cannot help wondering whether the fresh water might have played a
role. I have found large, very dead jellyfish on beaches taking days to vanish under
dry sand and other muck if they were not where scavengers such as snails would
eat them.
>From this I deduce that, had the tentacles had enough time to dissolve,
the rest of their bodies would have had time at the very least to be floating
around in partial decay.<
I wasn’t really thinking of “dissolving” in the mode that you describe. More
like disintegrating for lack of maintenance as the end of spawning passed. But
remember, apart from my general innocence of coelenterate taphonomy, I really
have no personal knowledge of the Mediterranean, so I am just letting my
thoughts flap in the breeze from my tongue (metaphorically of course; I am not
typing aloud.)
>Also, when considering that something may have been nibbling away at
them, remember that the nematocysts of which the tentacles are covered have the
ability to remain functional, for a time, even after a jellyfish dies.<
Again, that would depend on the jellyfish’s biology. Spawning jellyfish of
some species for all I know, might very well stop feeding and protecting
themselves when spawning. Their nematocysts might have been defunct for weeks
by then, to avoid killing too many gametes.
>Nematocysts which, needless to say, are specially designed to paralyze
or cause pain to any of the various small creatures that might eat the
tentacles and not the bells of the jellyfish.<
Well, not just “any”! Remember the intriguing ability of some nudibranchs to
eat the most vicious cnidarians, nematocysts and all, and even to pass those nematocysts
to their own skin for defence!
>Admittedly, the global warming tag that I slapped on there doesn't have
much to do with my question other than for the fact that it is often blamed for
the frequent and unheralded jellyfish blooms now occurring en masse throughout
the world. Sorry for the run-on.<
No problem. Certain small-souled persons have from time to time suggested
that I, even I, might do better to focus my run-ons more narrowly. Still, the substance of that particular run-on
might do better in another line of discussion if you have any active ideas on
the subject, no?
Cheers,
Jon
