Fact Friday

Some cnidarians switch between a polyp and a medusa body form. Corals and anemones only have the polyp stage. Jellyfish, as we think of them, are in the medusa stage, but they have a polyp stage when they are juveniles. Hydrozoans have the opposite: their adult form is a polyp, but they have a juvenile medusa stage.

Photo Credit: KSLOF, Rob Martimbeault

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Meet Renée Carlton, marine ecologist at the Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. She has studied the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on coral reefs all over the world—from the Florida Keys to islands in the South Pacific. She is especially interested in sharing marine science with communities around the world so they can effectively conserve their marine resources. She loves scuba diving, and her favorite ocean animal is a hermit crab.

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