Humans are of course transforming the oceans in ways that we barely understand, but one vicar of change is the massive proliferation of jellyfish. Spiegel takes note in this story, which informs us:
Jellyfish are relatively simple organisms. Their bodies are about 98 percent water, with the remainder consisting of gelatinous tissue, sex organs, a gastrovascular cavity, a primitive nervous system and venom capsules which, when irritated, can eject venom projectiles with the momentum of bullets. There are roughly 1,500 known species of jellyfish, some as tiny as a grain of sand and others as heavy as a wildebeest.
Are they really “simple” and “primitive”? I think not. This is a gradistic or qualitative assessment, using talking primates as the standard by which all things are judge. Let’s consider the next segment of the story:
As fragile as the individual animals may seem, jellyfish are incredibly tenacious masterpieces of evolution. For about the last 600 million years, they have survived dramatic changes in the oceans — the development of fish, their biggest enemies and competitors for food, massive heat waves, ice ages, the emergence and disappearance of oceans and meteorite impacts — without changing significantly.
They are also more resistant to manmade environmental degradation than most other marine organisms. They are more capable of coping with pollution, algae blooms, murky water and oxygen depletion than fish. Overdeveloped shorelines and structures in the open ocean even serve as nurseries of a sort to jellyfish. The surfaces provide more habitat to the young animals, which attach themselves to fixed structures as polyps. Studies have shown that jellyfish infestations often occur in places where human beings use and pollute the sea with particular intensity.
Shipping also promotes the triumph of the jellyfish. When they are transported into new bodies of water in the ballast water of ships, they often settle successfully and displace local species. They are not picky eaters, consuming whatever enters their mouth opening. And if they can’t find sufficient food, they simply shrink their bodies temporarily.
What is more, jellyfish apparently benefit from climate change. Many species grow more quickly at higher temperatures. And tropical species like the sea wasp, whose venom can kill people within two minutes, are spreading in subtropical waters.
None of this sounds very “simple” or “primitive.” In fact, they are exquisitely and complexly evolved. It is highly doubtful that jellyfish have not undergone significant evolutionary change over the past 600 million years. Aside from the fact that sparse fossil evidence showing a similar body-plan does not provide us with much information about other important traits, such as biochemistry, that surely have been evolving over this time, jellyfish are a highly diverse group and there probably has been a great deal of speciation over this enormous time period. And given changing conditions in the oceans, this speciation may well be accelerating.
While humans like to think that our evolutionary success is due to plasticity and adaptability, jellyfish are right there with us and may ultimately have the last laugh. If only those primitive creatures could laugh.