New research shows that unusual deep-sea creatures known as clams can fuse together when injured, creating a huge individual with its nervous system and stomach permanently fused. According to the researchers, this unusual adaptation has not been seen before in any other species. Researchers discovered molten jellies by chance in the laboratory.

“I was so excited [коли я їх знайшов]Lead study author Kei Jokura, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Exeter in Great Britain and Japan’s National Institute of Natural Sciences in Okazaki, told Live Science in an email. “I immediately retrieved the molten clam jellies from the room where I kept them and showed them to other laboratory personnel.”

Scallops, also known as scallops, are a group of more than 100 species of gelatinous, teardrop-shaped creatures with small scalloped mats. These alien-like jellyfish-like animals create light shows in the depths of the sea by illuminating special cells in their translucent bodies. They are often considered one of the strangest creatures in the deep sea and one of humanity’s earliest ancestors.

In a new study published Oct. 7 in the journal Current Biology, researchers describe how they conducted routine studies on warty clam jellies (Mnemiopsis leidyi), when they discover that one of their test subjects, also known as the sea nut, is missing. from a tank in their laboratory. The team later noticed that one of the remaining jellies was unusually large. And upon closer inspection, they realized that these were actually two intertwined individuals with “no visible gap between them.”

The researchers suspected that this fusion was a previously unknown adaptation resulting from injury to both animals. To prove this, they attempted to recreate the fusion process by removing small body parts of 20 individuals and combining them side by side, and nine pairs were successfully put together.

Damaged jelly coalesced quickly and usually coalesced completely within 24 hours of assembly. Within two hours of their bodies being fully fused, the couples also showed that their nervous systems were fully synchronized and responsive to stimuli, such as the researchers’ pokes, all over their shared bodies. This rapid neural integration is likely a result of the jellyfish’s unique nerve cells, which connect to each other differently than neurons in other animals.

The researchers also fed fluorescent shrimps fused jelly to see if their stomachs also fused. Food swallowed by one of the jellies could be seen passing through both stomachs, suggesting that this was the case.

Jokura said that although fused creatures act like a single organism, they are not a single organism because they have separate DNA and cannot pass on their “unique morphology” to future generations. “However, when you watch fused individuals swimming, they really do appear to function as a single organism, so it would be foolish to think of them that way,” he said. In a new paper, researchers often refer to fused individuals as “single entities.”

Researchers believe this is the first known case of any organism coming together in this way. “There have been no reports of this type of fusion in other species so far,” Jokura said.

Jokura added that this behavior probably goes unnoticed among clam jellyfish because it is probably extremely rare in the wild. He added that injured individuals must be close to each other for fusion to occur, and this possibility is much lower in the deep sea. This type of comb can also regenerate after injury, regenerating lost body parts and reversing the aging process, reducing the importance of mating with other individuals.

When the study ended three weeks later due to lack of funding, most of the fused pairs were still alive. But Jokura suspects the molten jelly could survive much longer. It also suggested that more than two injured individuals could fuse, although the team has not yet tested this. Now researchers are preparing to begin a similar study on individuals of another species of clam jelly. bolinopsis mikadoTo see if they can unite.