Jellyfish displays ‘city of gonads’

Of the more than 3,000 jellyfish species known to man, scientists recently classified one in Australia that is unlike any of its relatives—a species with gonads outside its body, according to National Geographic News.

The curious jellyfish, which ranges from 1.5-to-2 millimeters long, was discovered eight years ago in a part-seawater river on the Australian island of Tasmania. However, it has taken until now for scientists to conclude that it represents an entirely new family and genus. So far, scientists have not found a logical reason why the jellyfish’s gonads are located outside its body in a crater shape in the center of its topside and resemble a city skyline. Accordingly, its Latin name means “city of gonads.”

Lisa Ann-Gershwin, a curator of zoology at Australia’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, named the jellyfish species medeopolis—Latin for “city of gonads”—thus giving it the official Latin name Csiromedusa medeopolis.

Gonads are the reproductive glands that produce sperm in males and eggs in females.