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The world's only immortal animal

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Re: The world's only immortal animal

#11

Post by CUViper »

glhaynes wrote: post #4

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. Did they like ... just evolve or something? You'd think they'd have spiked before now and reached equilibrium.

According to one of the linked articles, they are suspected to be hitchhiking in the ballast of large ships, so their habitat is unnaturally expanding. There could always be other factors too, like an over-fished predator.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#12

Post by hristov »

What about enthropy? I would expect that after going between polyp and adult many times the DNA of some cells may get damaged, and the cells may not convert correctly to their new cell types, and eventually the organism will become more and more wrong until it dies.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#13

Post by biotech »

glhaynes wrote: post #4

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. Did they like ... just evolve or something? You'd think they'd have spiked before now and reached equilibrium.

Good observation. A spike in population implies a recent change in the organism or its environment. Since most multicellular organisms cannot evolve that quickly, it's more likely that there was a change in the environment which this organism was able to take advantage of. I doubt that their numbers are spiking because "they are bale to bypass death".

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#14

Post by glhaynes »

kiba wrote: post #8
glhaynes wrote: post #4

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. Did they like ... just evolve or something? You'd think they'd have spiked before now and reached equilibrium.

I think they got eaten instead. Biological immortality no good if you get ate pretty soon.

If it's not one thing it's another.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#15

Post by daniel-cussen »

glhaynes wrote: post #4

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. Did they like ... just evolve or something? You'd think they'd have spiked before now and reached equilibrium.

They are jellyfish, and jellyfish thrive on the recent development that is large amounts of nitrates in the oceans. Think greenhouse gases, but instead of heat in the atmosphere, it's algae and jellyfish in oceans.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#17

Post by rflrob »

hristov wrote: post #12

What about enthropy? I would expect that after going between polyp and adult many times the DNA of some cells may get damaged, and the cells may not convert correctly to their new cell types, and eventually the organism will become more and more wrong until it dies.

It all depends on how well the organism can distinguish between the incorrectly copied DNA (this is probably what you mean by damage) and the right sequence. Given that most of the DNA will be copied correctly, if slightly wrong bits can be detected and excised, then the organism should stay healthy. Biological codes are just as digital as computer ones.

Re: The world's only immortal animal

#20

Post by boucher »

tyler wrote: post #18
itistoday wrote: post #7

This form of immortality displeases me. I'd rather not turn back into a fetus for the sake of immortality.

Personally, I'm not particularly picky about my forms of immortality.

Seems like immortality without memory is useless, so really that's the question.
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