Immortal Jellyfish — printable fact sheet

Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.

Download PDF

Creature Atlas

Animal Fact Sheet

Name: ____________________

Date: ____________________

Immortal Jellyfish

Turritopsis dohrnii

The immortal jellyfish has found a way out of dying of old age. When it is starved, injured or otherwise stressed, the adult medusa does not simply perish: it settles onto a surface, and its cells transdifferentiate — converting directly from one mature cell type into another, w…

Classification

Invertebrate

Family

Oceaniidae

Habitat

Warm and temperate ocean waters

Diet

Carnivore

Conservation status

Not Evaluated

Lifespan

Potentially indefinite (biologically immortal), but often a few years in the wild

Weight

0.1–0.2 grams

Scientific name

Turritopsis dohrnii

Did you know?

The Immortal Jellyfish can theoretically repeat its life cycle endlessly, making it one of the few known creatures that can avoid natural death from aging.
Stressed or injured, it reverts to its juvenile polyp stage and starts over — effectively rewinding to youth. It does this by transdifferentiation: mature cells converting directly into other cell types, which almost nothing else can do. It is not truly immortal — it can still be eaten or killed by disease. It is only a few millimetres across and has spread worldwide in ships' ballast water.

What I learned

Draw the immortal jellyfish

Want the whole set?

Get printable fact-sheet packs, coloring pages, and classroom worksheet bundles for dozens of animals — ready to download and print.

Browse printable packs

Get a free printable each week

Join the newsletter for a new Creature of the Week + printables.