Watch Jellyfish Go Through Their “Stack of Pancakes” Phase
From Deep Look
5 min3rd4th5th6thScience
Summary
Before a jellyfish drifts through the sea, it spends part of its life stuck to a rock, stacked like a pile of pancakes that peel off one by one. Deep Look reveals the surprising stages of a jellyfish's life cycle.
Viewer safety
All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
A jellyfish life cycle has hidden stages: a settled polyp stacks up little discs that break off, each becoming a baby jellyfish. It looks nothing like the drifting adult we know.
- What surprising phase does a young jellyfish go through?
- How is the stacked, stuck-down stage different from the drifting adult?
- Why do you think many sea animals change form so much as they grow?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: polyp, medusa, life cycle, stage.
Try it: Draw the jellyfish life cycle: settled stack, then free-swimming bell. Write one way each stage looks different.