giant jellyfish is the lion's mane jellyfish's species within its genus.
which is the lion's mane jellyfish's species within its genus?
giant jellyfish
"cyanea annaskala" is in the scyphozoan class of the cnidaria phylum. the scyphozoan are the true jellies. it is within the semaeostomeae order. the semaeostomeae are the flag mouth jellies. it is within the cyaneidae family, which contain the more well known species of the lion's mane jellyfish. the phylogeny of the lion's mane jellyfish has long been debated since their discovery, and the "cyanea annaskala" has long been implicated in this difficulty. the high proportion of cosmopolitan species in pelagic individuals makes it extremely tedious to differentiate between closely related members. because of limited study and challenging experimentation, not all of the "cyanea" species from the north atlantic are considered valid. protein and medusae analysis from michael n. dawson of the university of new south wales confirm that "cyanea annaskala" is a valid sepcies, morphologically distinct based on differences in bell mass, number of nematocyst clusters, pits in coronal muscle folds, and other morphological characteristics. some of the other morphological characteristics that have been compared include the number of coronal and radial muscle folds, and the depth of primary and secondary marginal clefts. the distinguishing of "c. annaskala" from "c. capillata" and "c. rosea" is justified as robust based on these criterion. there are two subspecies which include "c. annaskala purpurea" and "c. annaskala margarina". these are located in port philips and port jackson respectively. purpurea are purple throughout whereas margarina are only purple at the free margin.
cyanea annaskala
the taxonomy of "cyanea" species is not fully agreed upon. some zoologists have suggested that all species within the genus should be treated as one. however, in the north sea at least, the lion's mane jellyfish and the blue jellyfish appear as distinct species. "cyanea" may be a species complex of recently diverged species.





















































bullet::::- "cyanea annaskala"





















































bullet::::- "cyanea buitendijki"





















































bullet::::- "cyanea capillata" – lion's mane jellyfish, giant jellyfish, or hair jelly





















































bullet::::- "cyanea citrae"





















































bullet::::- "cyanea ferruginea"





















































bullet::::- "cyanea lamarckii" – blue jellyfish or bluefire jellyfish





















































bullet::::- "cyanea nozakii" – ghost jellyfish





















































bullet::::- "cyanea postelsi"





















































bullet::::- "cyanea purpurea"
cyanea (jellyfish)