Do box jellyfish sleep at night?
Abstract
[Extract] A novel tagging technique has uncovered some surprising information about jellyfish behaviour. If you spend any time at all in tropical Australia, especially in the water, you will know about box jellyfish. You will also know that they have a major effect on the way people use the water, that they are capable of killing humans within minutes, and that vinegar is the first aid treatment of choice. But did you know that they "sleep"? We certainly didn't! About 12 months ago, we came up with a novel idea to try to track box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) using small ultrasonic transmitters (about 4 cm long and 12 mm in diameter). Using these for tracking marine animals is not new, but tracking jellyfish with them — that's certainly never been done before.
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A sleep-like state may not be specific to Cassiopea; other cnidarians may also exhibit it.
“Although future studies are required to test whether other cnidarians sleep, field studies showing behavioral quiescence, diel vertical migration, and swimming speeds that vary with diel period [21,22,23,37] suggest that a sleep-like state may not be specific to Cassiopea.”
From The Jellyfish Cassiopea Exhibits a Sleep-like State (2017) · cites this paper as [23]
Cites
NEMATOCYST INHIBITION INCHIRONEX FLECKERI
Hartwick, R., Callanan, V. I., & Williamson, J. (1980) · The Medical Journal of Australia · doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1980.tb134566.x · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Hamner, W., Jones, M. R. L., & Hamner, P. (1995) · Marine and Freshwater Research · doi:10.1071/mf9950985 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Coelenterate Biology
den Hartog, J. C., van der Spoel, S., & van Ofwegen, L. P. (1999) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 77 · see citing works
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Unearthing the phylogenetic roots of sleep
Allada, R., & Siegel, J. M. (2008) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.06.033 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
The Jellyfish Cassiopea Exhibits a Sleep-like State
Nath, R. D., Bedbrook, C. N., Abrams, M. J., Basinger, T., Bois, J. S., Prober, D. A., Sternberg, P. W., Gradinaru, V., & Goentoro, L. (2017) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.014 · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Unraveling the evolutionary determinants of sleep
Joiner, W. J. (2016) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.08.068 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
The yin and yang of sleep and attention
Kirszenblat, L., & van Swinderen, B. (2015) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2015.10.001 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
- Authors
- Seymour, J. E., Carrette, T. J., & Sutherland, P. A.
- Affiliations
- James Cook University (AU)
- ORCID
- Seymour, Jamie E
- Venue
- Medical Journal of Australia
- Publisher
- AMPCo
- Published
- 2004-12
- Volume
- 181
- Issue
- 11-12
- Pages
- 707-707
- ISSN
- 0025-729X (ISSN-L)
- 1326-5377
- OpenAlex
- W79908865
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 1.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- The Medical Journal of Australia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Keywords
- box jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri, sleep, ultrasonic tracking, animal tracking, venomous jellyfish
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Bites and Stings, Humans, Sensitivity and Specificity, Sleep, Wakefulness, Scyphozoa
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