Superhero Life Science (11/7-11/11)

Image courtesy of:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKEUMj6tSnd-24YklM2Y_4FdGW3BDgEu_Hr48uHt2Xr7O8gy8PEaxcGmId9f9OIs69v53nalvHw4RINyvazEvMJv5yNRIcwVLJXQoLT2t2vtxu8NIzC7ut5REjJ2QPDDfM9hYCFRSvaw/s1600/Turritopsis+dohrnii+immortal+jellyfish.png

About the project:

For this assignment, we had to learn about an animal with superpowers, and give those superpowers to a made up superhero. We had to write information about that superhero, and draw it in the costume of the animal that the superpowers came from. 

Summary:

I learned that there is only one animal in the world that is immortal. This animal is called the immortal jellyfish. When you look in a dictionary, immortal means: living forever; never dying or decaying. This is not always true for the immortal jellyfish. It can always be eaten by predators, or get a disease while going back to the first stage of its life. Once the immortal jellyfish reaches a mature stage, instead of dying like all other animals, it can choose to go back to an immature stage of its life, and start over again, and again, and again.

Immortal jellyfish life cycle:

The immortal jellyfish begins its life as a planula. The planula becomes a polyp on the ocean floor. Next, the polyp develops into a medusa (mature). If injured, the medusa jellyfish decides to go back to the polyp stage. And the cycle continues again, and again...

Here is the information that I gathered about my superhero:


Name of Superhero: Ultra Living


Name and Abilities of the animal in which it was based:
The animal that these powers came from is an immortal jellyfish. The immortal jellyfish abilities is immortality. The immortal jellyfish can also sting, like other jellyfish


Superpowers:
Superpowers of the immortal jellyfish is that it is immortal. Once it reaches a mature stage (or the medusa stage), instead of dying like all other animals, it chooses to change back into an immature stage, and go through growing up again, and again.


Animal structures that enable the superpowers, and exactly how they are included in your superhero:
For the immortal jellyfish to go back to the first stage of its life, their tentacles retract, their bodies start to shrink and become much smaller, and sink to the ocean floor. Then, they start their jellyfish cycle all over again.

The immortal jellyfish uses a rare process known as transdifferentiation that is only seen in some animals. Transdifferentiation, is when an adult cell can become an entirely different type of cell at a different stage. It’s an efficient way of cell recycling.


Strengths:
Ultra living can live forever, so she does not have to worry about dying after she reaches a mature stage. She can also sting predators like other jellyfish.


Weaknesses:
Even though Ultra Living is immortal, she can still be eaten by predators. Another weaknesses of Ultra living is that while she is going back to the first stage of her life, something can go wrong.


SP2: Developing and using models:

This week, I worked on my model/image of my superhero as I learned about the abilities of an immortal jellyfish, and how they work. I also learned about the ways that these abilities help the immortal jellyfish, and how the immortal jellyfish can use these abilities in daily life. We made these images to get a better understanding of how our superheroes would look as the animals we chose.

The Immortal Jellyfish
Image courtesy of:
http://mocomi.com/immortal-jellyfish/

Here is a video about the immortal jellyfish:

Link to video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFLSqvFO_Aw

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