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How jellyfish control their lives

Transgenic jellyfish reveal how these fragile creatures get by without a brain.
Side view of the jellyfish

Distribution of neurons in the jellyfish Clytia hemisphaerica. Credit: B. Weissbourd et al./Cell

In jellyfish, a complex network of neurons throughout the animals’ bodies replaces the need for a centralized brain.

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Nature 600, 10 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03510-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 30 November 2021: An earlier version of this article misstated the role of the neural network under the jellyfish’s round ‘umbrella’.

References

  1. Weissbourd, B. et al. Cell 184, 5854–5868 (2021).

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