Immortal Specie

Turritopsis nutricula jellyfish,

 a certain specie of Jellyfish belonging to the phylum Cnidaria and the class Hydrozoa, believed to be the only animal that has fully discovered the fountain of youth - reverting back to its polyp stage after becoming mature.

Photo Credit: Peter Schuchert

I was doing a research 'bout Immortality, to start with my new character reference on Role Playing (Rp) when I happen to surf this on yahoo - one of the top news actually at the Yahoo Homepage "The world's only immortal animal" contributed by Bryan Nelson.

Scientist say that Turritopsis is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to immature colonial stage through the cell development of "Transdifferentiation". It is a cycle where a non-stem cell transforms into another type of cell. While other animals like salamanders can undergo limited transdifferentiation to regenerate organs, turritopsis is the only specie that can repeat its life cycle indefinitely and regenerates its entire body.

This ability to reverse the life cycle allows the Turritopsis to bypass death and thus rendering it potentially biological immortality. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion." said Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute since study shows the specie has already spread all over the world. Marine biologists are now studying the jellyfish to determine how it is able to reverse its aging process.