Tiburonia

Tiburonia granrojo
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Semaeostomeae
Family: Ulmaridae
Subfamily: Tiburoniinae
Matsumoto et al., 2003[1]
Genus: Tiburonia
Matsumoto et al., 2003[1]
Species: T. granrojo
Binomial name
Tiburonia granrojo
Matsumoto et al., 2003[1]

Tiburonia granrojo is a jellyfish of the family Ulmaridae discovered in 2003, and the only member of its genus yet identified. It was discovered by a crew from MBARI led by George Matsumoto.[2] Its genus name is Tiburonia because the ROV the crew were using was called Tiburon, meaning "shark" in Spanish. Its species name was originally to be called "Big Ugly", but Kirsten Matsumoto raised objections to this name, and renamed it granrojo, meaning "big red" in Spanish.

Tiburonia granrojo is one of the largest sea jellies and unusual in a number of ways. They live at ocean depths of 600 to 1,500 metres (2,000 to 4,900 ft) and have been found across the Pacific Ocean in the Gulf of California, Monterey Bay, Hawaii and Japan. They can grow up to 76 centimetres (30 in) in diameter,[1] according to the California Academy of Sciences, and have thick fleshy oral arms in place of the long tentacles found in most jellies. The entire jellyfish is deep red in color.[3]

Davidson Seamount specimen, 18 May 2002

To date, only 23 members of the species have been found and only one—a small specimen under 15 centimetres (6 in)—has been retrieved for further study. Several high resolution videos of granrojo have been taken by remote controlled submarines. The discovery was announced by Dr. Matsumoto and colleagues in Marine Biology in 2003.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Matsumoto, George I.; Raskoff, K. A.; Lindsay, D. J. (July 2003). "Tiburonia granrojo n. sp., a mesopelagic scyphomedusa from the Pacific Ocean representing the type of a new subfamily (class Scyphozoa: order Semaeostomeae: family Ulmaridae: subfamily Tiburoniinae subfam. nov.)". Marine Biology 143 (1): 73–77. doi:10.1007/s00227-003-1047-2.
  2. ↑ "Dr. George I. Matsumoto, Ph.D". MBARI.
  3. ↑ Perlman, David (2003-05-07). "Mysteries of the Animal World: New Jellyfish: Big Red has cluster of arms, not tentacles". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-07-16.

Further reading

  • Raskoff, K. A.; Matsumoto, George I. (February 2004). "Stellamedusa ventana, a new mesopelagic scyphomedusa from the eastern Pacific representing a new subfamily, the Stellamedusinae". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 84 (1): 37–42. doi:10.1017/S0025315404008884h. 
  • Osborn, Dawn Alexandra; Silver, Mary W.; Castro, Carmen G.; Bros, Shannon M.; Chavez, Francisco P. (August 2007). "The habitat of mesopelagic scyphomedusae in Monterey Bay, California". Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 54 (8): 1241–1255. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2007.04.015. 
  • Lindsay, Dhugal J.; Furushima, Yasuo; Miyake, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Minoru; Hunt, James C. (November 2004). "The scyphomedusan fauna of the Japan Trench: preliminary results from a remotely-operated vehicle". Hydrobiologia. 530–531 (1–3): 537–547. doi:10.1007/s10750-004-2645-9. 

External links

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