Compass Jellyfish
The compass jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella) is a common jellyfish of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, with a pale bell marked by brown lines that radiate like the points of a compass.
The compass jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella) is a common jellyfish of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, with a pale bell marked by brown lines that radiate like the points of a compass.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Compass Jellyfish in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Cnidaria+Ctenophora lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Markings Like a Compass
Sixteen brown radiating V-shaped marks surround the center of the bell. The animal has long, frilly oral arms and 24 tentacles around the bell margin. Its sting is painful but not dangerous.
Summer Visitors
Blooms appear in summer around British and European coasts, and the jellyfish strand on beaches. They feed on small fish and plankton, and juveniles are food for turtles. See Pacific Sea Nettle.
Sea Nettle Relatives
It is in the same genus as the Pacific sea nettle. See Moon Jellyfish.
Compass Jellyfish at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Chrysaora hysoscella |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Cnidaria |
| Class | Scyphozoa |
| Order | Semaeostomeae |
| Family | Pelagiidae |
| Field Guide group | Cnidaria + Ctenophora (Radiata & Jellies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Saucer-shaped coastal medusa up to 30 cm across patterned with sixteen brown V-shaped markings radiating from a central spot like a mariner's compass rose, trailing four frilly oral arms and 24 marginal tentacles. |
| Class | Scyphozoa |
| Markings | Radiating brown lines |