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Tougher Than it Looks

April 30, 2012

This little jellyfish may look fragile, but in its own world it’s a predator, hunting unwary prey and well-adapted to a planktonic life suspended in water. Transparency helps it avoid being seen by its own predators, its tentacles carry clumps of concentrated stinging cells (upper right) to kill prey, and its soft jelly-like tissue uses little energy. WHOI biologists found this creature in a plankton tow during a Southern Ocean expedition, continuing WHOI’s history of research on zooplankton. (Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)