Spotted jelly
| Spotted jelly | |
|---|---|
| Specimens at the Monterey Bay Aquarium | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Scyphozoa |
| Order: | Rhizostomeae |
| Family: | Mastigiidae |
| Genus: | Mastigias |
| Species: | M. papua
|
| Binomial name | |
| Mastigias papua Lesson, 1830
| |
| Synonyms | |
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The spotted jelly (Mastigias papua), lagoon jelly, golden medusa, or Papuan jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish from the Indo-Pacific oceans. Like corals, sea anemones, and other sea jellies, it belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, which possess stinging cells called cnidocytes. Mastigias papua is one of the numerous marine animals living in symbiosis with zooxanthellae, photosynthetic algae within the animal's tissues.
A number of Mastigias populations referred to this species were isolated to various marine lakes in prehistory, and these isolated populations underwent various adaptations, such as the loss of their ability to sting.