Jellyfish Research Paper

Words: 887
Pages: 4

According to current evidence, the Earth lies around 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old. For much of Earth’s history, land was lifeless. (“How Old Is the Earth.”) The oldest known fossil is 3.5 billion years old, however evidence suggests that chemical life existed even earlier. Despite the prokaryotic life that comprised all life for the majority of time, more complex life eventually evolved as well as the eukaryotic cell and organisms as known today. (“Frequently Asked Questions About Evolution.”) Among these eukaryotic organisms are plants. As we know it, land plants evolved from green algae found in Earth’s oceans. The molecular and morphological evidence for this is overwhelming. Plants are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms, as well as photosynthetic autotrophs- not so coincidentally, brown, green, and red algae share these traits. (Dittami, Simon, et al.) The first land plants began colonizing land about 500 million years ago- which means …show more content…
Aquatic organisms lack structure because of the change in buoyancy. To best illustrate this, I will use an example of a jellyfish. When a jellyfish is seen in the water, it’s tentacles are spread out, the bell portion of the jellyfish is able to contract, and it can swim about freely. However, if this same jellyfish is taken out of the water, it will look like a squished blob, almost unidentifiable, and certainly unable to survive for various reasons. Early plants faced a similar issue, and this led to the development of vascular tissues. Cells of vascular tissue have a secondarily reinforced cell wall that makes the plant rigid. This tissue allows the plant to have a “skeletal” structural support and thus, the plant can grow tall as well, which helps the plant obtain more sunlight and outcompete others for this essential resource. (“Plants I - Evolution and Diversity, and Non-Vascular Plants.”