''Tiburonia'' is a genus of

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Ulmaridae The Ulmaridae are a family of jellyfish. Genera Formerly, the genus '' Phacellophora'' was also included in this family, but is now placed in the family Phacellophoridae.Straehler-Pohl, I., C. L. Widmer, and A. C. Morandini (2011). ''Characteri ...

. It was reported in 2003, following the discovery of its only species yet identified, ''Tiburonia granrojo''. It was discovered by a crew from

MBARI The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is a private, non-profit oceanographic research center in Moss Landing, California. MBARI was founded in 1987 by David Packard, and is primarily funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation ...

led by George Matsumoto. Pieces of the medusae (bell margin and arms) were collected for morphological analysis, which eventually led to sequencing and taxonomic identification. The discovery of this organism led to not only a new species, but a new subfamily of Ulmaridae, called Tiburoniinae. Its genus was named ''Tiburonia'' after the ROV the crew were using, called ''Tiburon'', meaning "shark" in Spanish. Because of this ROVs distinct maneuverability, all angles of the organisms were able to be observed, which is particularly important to the study of gelatinous

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

invertebrates. Its species name was originally to be called "big ugly", but Kirsten Matsumoto, George Matsumoto's Wife, 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 and have been found across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

, Monterey Bay,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is very likely that these jellies are exhibiting

deep-sea gigantism In zoology, deep-sea gigantism or abyssal gigantism is the tendency for species of invertebrates and other deep-sea dwelling animals to be larger than their shallower-water relatives across a large taxonomic range. Proposed explanations for thi ...

. They can grow up to in diameter, according to the California Academy of Sciences, and have thick fleshy 4-7 oral arms in place of the long tentacles found in most jellies. The radial canals of the Tiburonia granrojo do not narrow. This fact, along with the length of the arms and the shape of the bell, separates Tiburoniiae from other genera of Ulmaridae. All specimens that have been observed live in temperatures between 2.7–4.9C , salinities between 34.1–34.5 PSU, and oxygen contents between 0.15–1.22 ml of O2 1^-1. The entire jellyfish is deep red in color. To date, only 23 members of the species have been found and only one—a small specimen under —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 Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

'' in 2003. The first specimen of the species was obtained around the Japan trench and was placed in the National Science Museum in Tokyo.

References

External links

Article in the California Academic of Sciences' ''Science Now''
(Several high quality images)

Release in MBARI News

Big Red Jellyfish , Smithsonian Ocean Portal
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1807155 Ulmaridae Scyphozoan genera Monotypic cnidarian genera Cnidarians of the Pacific Ocean Marine fauna of Asia Marine fauna of North America Marine fauna of the Gulf of California Western North American coastal fauna Fauna of California Animals described in 2003

References

Further reading

External links