Can anyone explain the Turritopsis Dohrnii to me? The “immortal jellyfish, and one of the only immortal animals that we know of, but how? If it’s considered living then how does it not die?
In: Biology
Theyre not practically immortal, only theoretically immortal. They still die of diseases.
They have the ability through cell transdifferentiation to revert themselves to their immature polyp stage when stressed to form new clones of themselves, then reach maturity again, and then revert back again. This process can in theory take place over amd over without end, rendering them theoretically immortal. But in practical terms they get eaten or die naturally all the time.
Also – just a side note… aging and death are not prerequisites to quantify something as alive. Indeed there is some interesting research going on recently that suggests aging and death are evolutionary strategies, and not intrinsic processes…
example/ Cancer is a result of an error in the copying mechanisms involved in cellular regeneration… in theory long chains of telomeres could result in endless regeneration at tapid efficient scales, but would result in high volumes of errors leading to cancer that would kill organisms like people, before they reach sexual maturity and pass on their genes … so perhaps these chains evolved to shorten, leading to less efficient regeneration, but also slower and lower rates of cancer meaning more organisms live to mate, but also leading to old age and death… death, thus may ironically just be an evolutionary tradeoff for camcer prevention.
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