Cotylorhiza tuberculata, or the fried egg jellyfish, is common to the Mediterranean, Aegean and Adriatic Seas. It can grow to more than one foot. What's different about this type of jellyfish is its ability to cover distances on its own power without relying on currents.
Researchers came face to face with this lover boy for the first time in 1993 during submarine dives. Tiburonia granrojo can reach up to 3.3 feet in diameter. It lives way down there - between 2,000 to 4,800 feet deep in the ocean.
More species of jellyfish are being identified as scientists explore new ecosystems.
Researchers believe that moon jellyfish likely were transported and introduced into many of their current worldwide habitats by ships.
Polyps of the giant Nomurai jellyfish are shown here. Swarms of Nomurai have been found floating into the Sea of Japan. Since 2002, billions of giant jellyfish have flowed into the area, probably coming from the coastal waters of China. Marine biologists are unsure why giant jellyfish are suddenly flourishing in Asian waters but they suspect the phenomenon is linked to the growing pollution of China's coastal waters.
One natural control to the jellyfish population is the leatherback turtle, which primarily feasts on jellyfish. The bad news: leatherbacks have now become endangered thanks to commercial development of nesting beaches as well as to the elevated risk to their lives by swallowing plastic bags
During the summer of 2005, about 500 million Nomurai jellyfish--each weighing up to 450 pounds--floated into the Sea of Japan every day. But the incident which really caught peoples' attention occurred in 2009 when a giant jellyfish catch resulted in the capsizing of a Japanese trawl boat. The boat's three fishermen were later rescued.
Nomurai jellyfish weighs up to 450 pounds and sports a bell up to seven feet in diameter. Nomurai have recently increased in the Sea of Japan
Large numbers of ultra-venomous The venomous box jellyfish has now become a regular vacationer off some beaches in Hawaii. Researchers report that their population has substantially increased during the last 30 years.
In some parts of the Gulf of Mexico, jellyfish swarms become so intense that scientists report there being more jellyfish than there is water with more than one hundred jellyfish may jam each cubic meter of water.
Jellyfish rings close their bell on prey - in this case, an appetizing shrimp.