A species of jellyfish has been found to have the ability to fuse with another individual to survive after injury.
After fusing, the comb jellies (Mnemiopsis leidyi) are able to synchronise their muscle contractions and merge digestive tracts to share food.
The unusual ability was discovered during research by the University of Exeter in the UK and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences in Japan.
The findings were reported in the latest Cell Press journal Current Biology.
Researcher Kei Jokura said the findings suggested the jellyfish species lacked an ability “to distinguish between self and others”.
“Additionally, the data implies that two separate individuals can rapidly merge their nervous systems and share action potentials,” Dr Jokura said.
The researchers studied comb jellies in a seawater tank in their lab.
“They noticed an unusually large individual that seemed to have two backends and two sensory structures known as apical organs instead of one,” the study report said.
“They wondered if this unusual individual arose from the fusion of two injured jellies.”
In the tests that followed, in 90 percent of cases injured individuals became one and survived for at least three weeks.
“Further study showed that after a single night, the two original individuals seamlessly became one with no apparent separation between them,” the report said..
“When the researchers poked at one lobe, the whole fused body reacted with a prominent startle response, suggesting that their nervous systems also were fully fused.”
The full report is on the Cell Press website.
