Interesting Facts about Jelly Fish

We are all aware about Jelly fish they are very common through out the world. Here is a list of some interesting facts about Jelly Fish:

Though they refer to as jelly FISH; technically they are not a fish as they do not have any fish like features such as gills. They breathe through their skin.

Jelly fish is carnivorous. They feed on crustaceans, fish eggs, planktons, small fish and even other jelly fish.

They are the oldest multi-organ animal. They are living in earth for more than 500 million years. The size of a jelly fish can vary from 1 mm to a few meters in diameter.

They are common in every ocean. Very few of them also live in fresh water.

Jelly fish is famous for their toxicity. Upon touching a jelly fish nematocyst cells pierce the skin of the victim and release toxin inside the body. There toxin levels vary species to species. The venom from a sea wasp (a species of box jelly fish) can kill a man within minutes.

They can reproduce both sexually and asexually. A single jelly fish can release more than 45000 eggs per day. The larva of a jelly fish is called planula larva.

Though it seems odd but more people killed by jelly fish than sharks through out the year.

They lack any skeleton i.e. no skeleton is present externally or internally. Depending upon species jelly fish contains 95-98% water in the body composition. They do not possess any circulatory, digestive, respiratory systems.

Jelly fish do not have any locomotary organ; they move through the water by contracting and expanding their umbrella shaped bodies. 

The life span of a jelly fish can vary from few hours to few months.

Some of them possess light emitting organs (bioluminescent organ) and can glow in the dark.

There are two phases of a jelly fish’s life viz. polyp and medusa. It is the medusa phase (umbrella shaped) that we generally refer to as jelly fish.

Jelly fish is harvested for its collagen. This is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Some jelly fish such as blubber jelly fish are edible too. In some Asian countries like Japan and Korea jelly fish is taken as food.

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Interesting Facts about Rhinoceros

Today’s article is about Interesting facts of Rhinoceros. Whenever we think about a Rhinoceros a first thing comes to our mind is their horn/horns. But there are many other interesting facts which we generally don’t know about them. We hope this article will give you some insights about that.

The word Rhinoceros comes from two words: rhino which means nose and ceros meaning horn.

Various types of rhinoceros are found viz. white, black, greater one horned, Javan and Sumatran. Black, white and Sumatran Rhinos have two horns where as Javan and one horned rhinos have only one horn.
Among Rhinos White rhinoceros is the largest. They can weight up to 2500 kgs. They are the largest terrestrial animal after Elephants. Javan Rhinos are the smallest among Rhinos. They can reach a maximum of 900 kgs.

They are herbivorous animal. Black rhinos have prehensile upper lip which helps them to grasp grass. A rhino consumes a lot of plant matter like leaves, grass, bushes etc. and in a normal condition produce close to 50 kgs of dung per day. The unique feature of their dung is that the smell of the dung is different for male female and juvenile.

They have a very thick layer (In an average about 1.5 cm) of skin. Despite this huge thickness their skin is relatively very sensitive towards sunburn or insect bites. Sumatran Rhino has long hair through their body whereas all the rest of the rhinos are hairless.

They are not known for their eye sight which is usually very poor. But they compensate that with excellent sense of smell and hearing.

The famous horn of the rhinoceros is made up of hairs and not bones. Rhino calves are born without horns. These horns continue to grow through out their lifetime.

Rhinoceros is a perissodactyle animal i.e. only one toe of their feet has modified to became the hoof. So they are much more closely related to horse and Zebra than many others. To know more about animal classification click here.

Though they appear to be a slow moving animal they can reach a top speed of 60 km per hour. If you want to know about all the animals which have amazing speed check out this article.

Male rhinos are solitary animal whereas the female rhinos are much more social and stay in groups. A group of Rhino is called a Crash. Rhinos have a very long (close to 2 years) gestation period. Only elephants in the animal kingdom have a greater gestation period than rhinos.
They can live for a period of 35 to 40 years.

Due to their large size and aggressive nature not many animals hunt Rhinos. However Lions, Tigers, crocodiles and wild dogs have sometimes preyed on baby or sick rhinoceros but humans are by far the biggest threat to Rhinos. It is believed particularly in Asia that Rhino’s horns have medicinal properties. But there are no evidence of this has been found. Among all the species 3 (black, Sumatran, and Javan) have been registered under critically endangered in IUCN Red list.

As for you all rhino lovers to know September 22 has been celebrated as world rhino day.

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