The Upside-Down Jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana as an Emerging Model System to Study Cnidarian–Algal Symbiosis
Mónica Medina, Victoria Sharp, Aki Ohdera, Anthony J. Bellantuono, Justin Dalrymple, Edgar Gamero‐Mora, Bailey Steinworth, Dietrich K. Hofmann, Mark Q. Martindale, André C. Morandini, Matthew DeGennaro, William K. Fitt
Abstract
Cassiopea) frondosa in 1774, based on a preserved speci men originating from an unreported site in the Caribbean. The model Cassiopea xamachana, also known as the However, Peter Forskl, a member of a Danish expedi upside-down jellyfish, was first described for the Caribbean tion sent to explore Arab countries in the years 1761-1767, (Jamaica) by Bigelow in 1892. Cassiopea xamachana is a first observed, collected and described in his data log tropical species belonging to the cnidarian class Scyphozoa, an upside-down-type rhizostomatous medusa under the order Rhizostomeae, family Cassiopeidae. Substantially name Medusa (now Cassiopea) andromeda at Tr on the different from typically pelagic scyphozoan medusae, southwestern coast of the Sinai Peninsula in October 1762. Cassiopea spp. jellyfish show an epibenthic lifestyle, resting Tragically, Forskl and all but one participant of the expe upside-down with the bell turned to the substrate and the dition succumbed to disease or fatal incidents. As the only oral arms and appendages exposed upward. They preferensurvivor, the surveyor Carsten Nibuhr wrote an account tially occur in shallow water on soft bottom areas, often also of the expedition and published postum only in 1775 the in seagrass beds, in tropical, mangrove-sheltered lagoons.