g i Fi n d n
Cn i d a r i a
by Karina Santoso Samantha Lee Katie McLaughlin
Once there was a purple-striped jellyfish. He was in the‌ Phylum Cnidaria Class Scyphozoa Order Semaeostomeae Family Pelagiidae Genus Chrysaora species colorata
However, he didn’t like his long scientific name so he just went by Jerry. He was very sad because he couldn't find any other organisms in his phylum. So he went to look for them...
He looked high and low around his house, but it looked like all his neighbors were at work. He hoped it wasn’t because he was a carnivore and had accidentally eaten a few of his neighbors before.
While he did obviously live in the ocean and breathed through his body’s walls, he only ate his neighbors when he got really hungry. So he went to look for other organisms in his phylum and kept swimming by himself.
Then he turned around a huge piece of coral and found his phylum member the hydra named Haley.
Haley said hi and asked what Jerry was looking for. He said he was missing seeing members of his phylum so he came looking for them.
He was so happy to have found Haley! Haley, like most of her relatives, spent most of her life as a polyp and was colonial or solitary. Like Jerry she also ate her neighbors occasionally when she got really hungry and felt no one wanted to be her friend either.
Jerry asked Haley, “Do you want to come look too?”, and Haley responded, “I’d love to”. So he kept swimming with the hydra named Haley.
Haley and Jerry were casually swimming when all of a sudden the ocean started to light up. They were both really confused, but realized it was a box jellyfish.
Normally they hang out in tropical oceans and around river mouths, estuaries and creeks, so it was unusual to see one in the open ocean. Haley and Jerry swam up and she told them her name was Julie.
Julie couldn’t find any members of her phylum either. She looked all around the places her species hung out at, even where they laid their eggs in hopes one would hatch early and be her friend. She had a problem with using her venomous poison to kill her food, shrimp, too close to her friends.
As a result, she didn’t have many friends because they were often affected by her poison. So when Jerry and Haley asked if she wanted to come with them she said yes! So Jerry kept swimming with the hydra named Haley and the box jellyfish named Julie.
Jerry and his two new friends swam on until they spotted strange rocklike formations on the ocean floor. They swam closer to figure out what it was and discovered that it was actually one of their phylum members, coral!
The coral, named Carl, was kind of lonely since he didn’t get to travel around the ocean much and was very interested in Jerry’s search for other members of his phyla because Carl didn’t get around much (he was stuck in a situation)
Since Carl and all the other coral had stinging cells on their tentacles to catch small fish and plankton, they could never be that close to each other so Carl never really had anybody to talk to.
He was very excited when Jerry asked him if he wanted to join the search and eagerly accepted the offer. So Jerry kept swimming with the hydra named Haley, the box jellyfish named Julie, and the coral named Carl.
The four swam on until they got to a rock with an anemone attached to it. The anemone, another one of Jerry’s phylum relatives, introduced himself as Alfredo.
Once again, Jerry told him what he and the others were looking for.
Because he was a sea anemone, Alfredo easily ate prey larger than him and stayed in the same spot for long periods of time, until conditions became unsuitable or he was threatened by predators.
Alfredo befriended the others quickly and he accepted Jerry’s offer to join the search very gladly. So Jerry kept swimming with the hydra named Haley, the box jellyfish named Julie, the coral named Carl, and the sea anemone named Alfredo.
The friends swam until they ran into a big, unfamiliar creature. It was wearing a big mask and was holding a big fishing net that kind of scared them. Suddenly, it started waving the net towards Jerry and his friends.
In a panic, Jerry swam up to the creature and stung it. The creature jumped and started swimming away.
So he continued swimming with the hydra named Haley, the box jellyfish named Julie, the coral named Carl, the sea anemone named Alfredo. Jerry is happy because he finally found his phylum and protected them by getting rid of the scary creature.
Cnidaria are friends, not food! -Bruce
The End!