Immortal Jelly?!

That's right folks. I came across this very interesting article over on green.yahoo.com a few months back about a particular species of jellyfish that might possibly be the only animal to have figured out a way to be immortal!

Apparently the turritopsis nutricula (below) species of jellyfish might have figured out the fountain of youth.

Photo courtesy of the-amazing

This particular species is capable of cycling through a full life, become a mature adult, and then revert back to an immature polyp stage. It is truly shocking because it has no real limit for a life span. Apparently, it is the only known animal who can repeatedly revert back to its first stage of life.

The process it undergoes is called transdifferentiation. During this process one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell and so on and so forth. There are some animals who can go through a limited transdifferentiation, for example, salamanders can regrow their limbs. However, turritopsi nutricula is able to completely regenerate it's entire body over and over again.

Imagine if we were capable of such a task? Would you want to be able to keep reverting back to your infant stage? I don't think I'd enjoy this very much. One life just might be enough for me, thanks! Make sure you share your thoughts below!