#CtenophoreFunFacts: Comb jellies can survive a wide range of salinities and temperatures. You can find them throughout all areas of the world's oceans, from tropical shallow seas to arctic waters and the deep-sea! 🏖️🪼❄️ The one place you won't find them? Fresh water! 📷 Chad King/NOAA (Public domain)

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! Take a minute to relax & watch bloody belly comb jellies effortlessly float in the water 🔉😊🪼 Their red coloration keeps them camouflaged from predators at depth 🙈 While the 🌈 display is diffracted light from beating cilia along their comb rows! 📽️ @montereybayaquarium.org 🦑

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! Have you ever wondered how a comb jelly propels itself in the water? They utilize a metachronal rhythm of beating cilia (located on comb plates), which appear like a moving wave! Credit to @kei-jokura.bsky.social. Read more in this original paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🦑

To give people a sense of the scale of these videos, check out this useful comparison of zygote sizes created by @rrbehringer.bsky.social #evodevo #devbio 🌊🦑 3/3

Scientific names of species (From left to right) and images of adult forms (below) 🌊🦑 2/3 1. Danio rerio 2. Lytechinus variegatus 3. Latrodectus sp. 4. Hypsibius dujardini 5. Ciona intestinalis 6. Mnemiopsis leidyi 7. Chaetopterus variopedatus 8. Caenorhabditis elegans 9. Crepidula fornicata

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy this video capturing the development of nine different species (including a very special Mnemiopsis leidyi). Can you guess the others without peeking? Spoilers in ALT & 🧵. Credit to @tessamontague.bsky.social & Zuzka Vavrušová. #evodevo 🌊🦑 1/3

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy this majestic comb jelly (Aulacoctena sp.), discovered 1.4 miles below the ocean's surface during the #NazcaHighSeas Expedition off the coast of Chile (2024) 🔊🪼 #ctenophore #scicomm #MarineLife #MarineBiodiversity 📽️: @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy these cydippid comb jellies feeding on some tasty copepods 🔊🪼😋🪳 Their sticky tentacles contract with a spinning motion to bring the prey to their mouths. #ctenophore #scicomm 🌊 🦑 Credit 📽️ to Dr. Richard Kirby (@PlanktonPundit/X) 🎵: Megisss

Welcome to Ctenophores Rock! 🪼🥁 We comb thru the internet looking for all things #ctenophore & other cool emerging model organisms; while celebrating all those that are part of our community! #RockOn Helpful Hashtags Weekly: #CtenophoreCtuesday Trivia: #CtenophoreFunFacts Questions: #AskCtenophores

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy the soothing rainbow display of a lobate comb jelly 🔊🌈🪼 This #ctenophore was captured by @schmidtocean.bsky.social, during the #AtacamaTrenchAncients expedition off the coast of Chile, in 2024 ✨ #PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈 #MarineLife #SciComm #Science 🦑

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy this calming video of a Leucothea pulchra swimming through the water 🔊🪼🌊 This comb jelly has rows of beating cilia (ctenes) that refract light, giving the appearance of 🌈-colored pulses. #ctenophore #PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈 🦑 📽️ @montereybayaquarium.org

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy this floating rainbow 🔊🌈🪼 Every Tuesday throughout June, we will be featuring 🏳️‍🌈-colored images/videos of our favorite comb jellies! #PrideMonth #ctenophore 🦑 📽️ @schmidtocean.bsky.social during the Biodiverse Badlands Expeditions (circa 2021)

Happy #WorldOceanDay! Did you know there are around 200 living #ctenophore species that have been validated with many new species being found in the deep-sea? For a historical (cteno)list, see faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Cten... #MarineLife #CtenophoreFunFacts #SciComm 📷 Eric Vance, U.S. EPA

By using cutting-edge imaging technologies (such as #EyeRIS & #DeepPIV) and rapid genome sequencing, the deep-sea team of #DesigningTheFuture3 were able to confirm 31 new species, including 7 ctenophores! Credit EyeRIS image to @kakanikatija.bsky.social & @mbarinews.bsky.social 🦑 #CtenophoreFunFacts

It's the 1st #CtenophoreCtuesday of #PrideMonth! If there was ever a LGBTQIA+ ambassador from the animal kingdom, it would definitely be a comb jelly! In addition to their rainbow-colored displays, most #ctenophores are hermaphrodites, producing both eggs & sperm 🏳️‍🌈🪼 📽️ www.instagram.com/taz_photo_/ 🦑

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, enjoy this oddly-shaped comb jelly 🔊🪼 In order to keep their shape, deep-sea invertebrates are uniquely adapted to the pressures at depth. Read the original research: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 📽️ @mbarinews.bsky.social #CtenophoreFunFacts 🦑 🧪

Unlike most animals with a permanent opening, many #ctenophores have a transient anus that only appears when they are about to defecate. Here, you can see a warty comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) tear a new one to poop! #CtenophoreFunFacts #MarineLife 📽️: Presnell et al (2016) doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Ten years after the first gathering, #Ctenopalooza returns for Round Ctwo! Join #ctenophore enthusiasts & researchers from around the world at @mbarinews.bsky.social in Moss Landing, California, on August 24-25, 2026 🌊 For more details and how to register, visit: www.mbari.org/event/ctenop... 🦑 🧪

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, take a look at a Venus girdle 🔊🎀🪼 Appearing like a ribbon dancing in the water, this unique comb jelly is the only member of its Genus (Cestum). Video credit: 📸 @pedrovalenciam (www.instagram.com/pedrovalenci...) #ctenophore #scicomm #MarineLife 🦑 🧪

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! For your moment of zen, we are taking a deep-sea trip to the Twilight Zone to see a mysterious lobate comb jelly 🔊🪼 The biomass in this region is more than the rest of the ocean combined! Video credit to @schmidtocean.bsky.social as part of #SEPacificSeamounts #MarineLife

🥳 Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough! Over the years, he's had countless species named in his honour from butterflies (Euptychia attenboroughi) 🦋 to dinosaurs (Attenborosaurus conybeari) 🦕 You can even find a comb jelly with his namesake: Attenboroughctena bicornis! 😍 #CtenophoreFunFacts

For #CtenophoreCtuesday, we are highlighting a deep-sea "hit-and-swim" by a voracious squid on an unsuspecting comb jelly! 😱 Despite having a low-nutritional value, #ctenophores are prey for a number of deep-sea creatures. Credit video to @mbarinews.bsky.social h/t @schmidtocean.bsky.social #scicomm

“I find your lack of ctenes disturbing.”Credit original #sciart to @joanjsoto.bsky.social. #MayTheCtenoforceBeWithYou #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay #ctenophore #scicomm

In order to control the Mnemiopsis population, another predatory comb jelly (Beroe ovata) was introduced, which drastically reduced the number of invasive specimens. Here, you can see a large Beroe comb jelly consuming a smaller Mnemiopsis. Video credit to @fredrikhugosson.bsky.social. #scicomm 2/2

We're celebrating #CtenophoreCtuesday with some #CtenophoreFunFacts 🤓 Did you know the highly invasive sea walnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi) devastated the Black Sea ecosystem & fisheries in the 1980s? With no natural predators, it flourished with densities reaching up to 400 specimens per cubic meter. 1/2

For the first time in decade, Ctenopalooza returns for Round Ctwo! #Ctenophore researchers & enthusiasts from around the world will convene August 24 - 25, 2026 at @mbarinews.bsky.social in Moss Landing, California. For more details and how to register, visit: www.mbari.org/event/ctenop... #scicomm

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! Do you recognize self from non-self? Sounds existential, but comb jellies can functionally integrate and synchronize muscle movements when fused following injury. 🤯 Credit to @kei-jokura.bsky.social. Learn more: www.cell.com/current-biol... #CtenophoreFunFacts 🪼🥁 #scicomm

No you aren't watching this time-lapse video in reverse ⏪🪼 When fed after periods of stress, Mnemiopsis can reverse from mature lobate back to early cydippid stage. ⏭️🤯 Read more about it: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Credit to @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social & @joanjsoto.bsky.social. #CtenophoreFunFacts

Happy #CtenophoreCtuesday! Enjoy this spectacular comb jelly captured by an international team onboard R/V Falkor (too) 🔊🪼 This vessel patrols off the coasts of Antarctica, the South Sandwich Islands, Argentina, & Uruguay. Credit to @schmidtocean.bsky.social. 🌊 #scicomm #science #ctenophore #SciSky

#CtenophoreFunFacts: Cydippids are a common life stage across the Ctenophora phylum. With tiny (.05-3 cm) ovoid bodies, they have retractable tentacles to capture prey. In a phenomenon known as dissogeny, cydippids can sexually mature to produce eggs & sperm. Image credit: @joanjsoto.bsky.social 🪼🥁