Turritopsis [SEP] parent taxon
Turritopsis
Turritopsis is a genus of hydrozoans in the family Oceaniidae.
Species.
According to the "World Register of Marine Species", this genus includes the following species:
- "Turritopsis chevalense" – "species inquirenda"
- "Turritopsis dohrnii" also known as the "Benjamin Button jellyfish", or the "immortal jellyfish". It can reverse its life cycle and transform itself back to a polyp.
- "Turritopsis fascicularis"
- "Turritopsis lata"
- "Turritopsis minor
also has a bottom-living polyp form, or hydroid, which consists of stolons that run along the substrate, and upright branches with feeding polyps that can produce medusa buds. These polyps develop over a few days into tiny 1 mm medusae, which are liberated and swim free from the parent hydroid colony.
Images of both the medusa and polyp of the closely related species "Turritopsis rubra" from New Zealand can be found online. Until a recent genetic study, it was thought that "Turritopsis rubra" and