Mind Blown

There exists a jellyfish that is biologically immortal.

Everything that lives will one day die. This is the law of nature in our universe. From the smallest creatures on Earth to the greatest stars in the cosmos, death is a certainty for all things that live.

One species, however, has chosen to ignore the rules and happily exists forever: Turritopsis dohrnii, the 4.5 mm transparent jellyfish. In addition to being immortal, it seems to be everywhere in our oceans.

Their secret to cheating death is reproduction. Once they procreate, these tiny jellyfish revert to their juvenile, sexually immature state. In other words, they get to experience their awkward aquatic adolescence all over again, but as teenagers, they actually know a thing or two this time. Instead of locking themselves in their bedrooms and listening to loud music, these jellyfish fall to the ocean floor, where their bodies shrink, and their tentacles retract.

For Turritopsis dohrnii, this is more than merely a phase. Their reproduction cycle can be repeated over and over again, making them biologically immortal. Provided they avoid predators and disease, they can continue this cycle forever.

These small blobs of jelly have wanderlust too. Marine biologists suspect that the immortal jellyfish originated in the Pacific Ocean, but regardless of where they started, they can now be found in the temperate-to-tropical regions of all the world's oceans. It's thought that, because of their size, these jellyfish can inadvertently hitch freerides on the ballast tanks of ships, which explains why they're slowly spreading throughout the seas. By travelling the Earth, they increase their chances of meeting other biologically immortal jellyfish and making more tiny jellies.