• Question: do jelly fish have a heart?

    Asked by Alysha to Praveen, Michael, Loan, Gemma, Cristina, Cristina on 8 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by NTB.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 8 Nov 2015:

      Hi!

      Thanks for your question! Jellyfish do not have hearts, they don’t need them! Their skin is so thin that they don’t need a respiratory system to transport oxigen around or circulation to deliver nutrients to the body, that’s why they don’t need a pumping mechanism. They filter the nutrients and absorb them directly from the water into the cells.

    • Photo: Loan Nguyen

      Loan Nguyen answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Hi,
      These beutiful creatures do not have a heart. That is not to say that they are cruel or nasty. They also do not have a brain, a skelton or even a head! They are mainly made up of water. Not all jelly fish are poisonous, as we are led to believe. Some are really friendly and harmless and my daughter loves swimming with the friendly ones. You must know your jelly fish and which are friendly and which are not before you touch one. Otherwise it can be painful.

      Hope that helps….keep the questioning. It is the best way to learn.

      Loan

      Loan

    • Photo: Michael Schneider

      Michael Schneider answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      No, as others have answered already. But, it’s worth your knowing that insects, which you might not ordinarily think of as having a heart, have a long straight tube down the centre of their body, which pumps rhythmically and does much the same thing. The components and genetic instructions to make an insect heart and a human one are so similar, that many genes for heart defects in children were found first in flies!

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