I watched an episode of Cartoon Network’s Secret Saturdays recently, due in no small part to the fact that Phil plays Doc Saturday, and the idea of atmospheric jellyfish refreshed itself in my mind. Following up my recent post on siphonophores I thought I’d push out some information about this often side-lined cryptid.
In the episode, entitled “The Swarm at the Edge of Space”, atmospheric jellies are represented as stinging creatures that dwell in the graduated edge of Earth’s atmosphere. This is consistent with both theories of what these creatures are. One camp believes them to be space-dwelling animals that like to “swim” around planets, where others believe them to be naturally occurring on planets like Earth, but more common on gas giants.
I remembered seeing a news story about a strange rain or jellyfish-like mass some years ago in Washington, the details of which are scarce online. Unsolved Mysteries did a report on it, and most coverage seems to want to link it a chemical weapon of sorts.
I like to keep an open mind to the idea that there may be an atmospheric ecosystem yet unknown to us. Although some sources attribute the possibility of atmospheric jellyfish to discovers such as aerogel there is a far less exotic possibility. With known lighter-than-air gasses including Hydrogen, Helium, and Methane, common on Earth is it too much of a stretch to consider small creatures as thin and fragile as jellyfish producing a gaseous bi-product that can keep them afloat? What the everyday experience of humanity betrays us is that we’re all settled in the bottom of a vast gas ocean just as encompassing to us as the liquid world is to aquatic life. Physics will still apply. The question to me would be what type of food source is fueling them. Unless these mysterious jellies are photosynthetic, converting available light into energy and producing light gasses within a thin sack structure. It would be of great evolutionary benefit for a photosynthetic plant to rise above the cloud cover. Some plants, like the famous Venus Fly Trap, exhibit many animal-like behaviors.
This, of course, debunks the idea that stories like those put forward by Robert Gardner are related to these organisms. The story goes,
“back in the summer of 1939, when a US Army Air Force plane with 12 passengers and a crew of two aboard took off from an Army base in San Diego, California. The plane, had been flying for just about an hour before sending out a distress call. After sending out that distress signal to the base, the plane with its passengers and crew returned to the base in San Diego. Upon arrival, Army servicemen opened the hatch to the interior of the plane and were horrified when they saw that all 12 passengers and one of the pilots were dead. The other pilot, the commander of the flight, was the only person, who stayed alive, but he died in several minutes after landing the plane. Investigators from the army examined the dead military men, to discover that all of the men on board that had died had strange burn marks on their skin, but it did not become possible to find out their origin point, and what really happened on board the plane during the flight. Investigators further determined that all of the passengers onboard the plane had used their personal firearms as the hull paneling of the plane was riddled with gunshots exit points, as if the people inside the plane were trying to kill a very fast yet unseen enemy.” – Wikipedia
If these creatures are photosynthetic the only reason I can find for them to have adapted stingers would be to fend off rival organisms, not for hunting. Perhaps they thin their gene pool by “popping” sexual rivals?
In either case, there would be serious doubts that such adaptations would be harmful to humans, but one never knows. Does one?
You wrote as if “atmospheric Jellies” are real, but neglected. If they are real – since their existence is so contrary to everything we know about jellyfish and the laws of nature – whoever can prove so becomes rich and famous. You can be rich and famous.
I suspect that you don’t know or care anything about “atmospheric jellies.” I suspect that you write about them because you think they’re interesting fodder for imaginative speculation.
That’s fine, if you can be honest about it. If you can say “here is something interesting and fantastic (fake)” you are at least honest.
You present this stuff as if it were actually real, which is sad.
Hi again Richard, I’m not really sure what you’re saying here. I clearly say that there are a few theories of what these “things” might be and I have clearly called them a cryptid, which is defined by reference.com as “A term used in the study of cryptozoology to refer to a creature whose existence has been suggested but not demonstrated scientifically.” I think perhaps you’re getting hung up on the word jellyfish. This can be confusing if you can’t reach outside of your known definitions. The term was applied by people who’ve described these (unproven to exist) creatures due to their appearance. They may in-fact not have ANYTHING to do with jellyfish, but according to witnesses these “things” LOOK similar to what they remember jellyfish looking like. If they are proven to exist it would be at that time when they are assigned a classification based on taxonomy. I highly doubt that there is an actual jellyfish floating around in the sky, but I’ve posted a few theories about how such a thing would be possible, including that it may be some form of plant life. Once again… just theories and thought experiments. Now let’s address the misrepresented fact you’ve provided in your argument… all historical signs point to the fact that no one who discovers zoological evidence of these cryptids would become rich by anyone’s standards. New species of animals and plants are discovered quite frequently by research teams around the world and they are offered up to a news audience in a small and fleeting blurb after publication of the findings in a journal of applicable science. When you can provide me with a business plan of how you go about monetizing the discovery of an atmospheric jellyfish then perhaps I will entertain the idea of hunting one down provided proper seed financing could be raised to execute the business model. However, I still doubt I’d take up such a challenge since I’m a media maker and not a scientist.
The world’s experts on jellyfish are all on the Internet, and some would probably be happy to hear from you. You can probably find them by Googling “jellyfish phd.”
If asked about “atmospheric jellies” those who respond would probably say that there is no credible evidence of jellyfish in the atmosphere, and some might try to explain how such a thing is unlikely, given the laws of nature as we know them.
You might dismiss their opinion, because you feel that they don’t have sufficient imagination. But, well, you’d think that if anyone would be interested in flying jellyfish, they would.
These guys have lost of free time, and most of it is spent thinking about jellyfish. If they could produce any evidence of an awesome, heretofore unknown jellyfish, they would.
I recommend that you send them email and survey them. This is the least that you could do, before dismissing the jellyfish science community as backward and unimaginative.
Ha! What makes you think that I’m disinterested in talking to jellyfish experts? As a matter of fact I’ve had some lovely conversations with people at the Florida Aquarium, Monterey Bay, and online. I have a long history in oceanography, so let’s be honest… there isn’t enough hard evidence that these thing exists to make most jellyfish experts interested. You become an expert in something because you love it. Why would a jellyfish expert spend all their time in a high-altitude creature hunt when they could be studying the mysteries of some very interesting animals that still have much to teach us?