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Jellyfish can remember - despite having no brain!

A Caribbean box jellyfishImage source, Jan Bielecki

Turns out that jellyfish are smarter than you might think!

Experts have found that these little creatures can learn - even though they don't have a brain.

They discovered that jellyfish are capable of changing their behaviour based on previous experiences - something that's never been seen before in other similar species.

Scientists believe their findings could change our understanding of the brain and could reveal more about how our own brains work.

What did scientists find?

Image source, Jan Bielecki

Jellyfish have been around for more than 500 million years, long before the first dinosaurs roamed on Earth.

They've often been thought of as very simple organisms - jellyfish are made up of around 98% water and have no bones, no brain and no heart.

However a new study by scientists from the University of Copenhagen has found that can they learn at a much more complex level than ever imagined.

They looked at Caribbean box jellyfish, which are only around a centimetre long and are known to be able to navigate their way through tricky obstacles including murky waters and a maze of underwater mangrove roots.

Did you know?

Jellyfish are invertebrates, which means they don't have a backbone.

Fish have backbones (also known as a spine) - so technically jellyfish aren't really fish, despite having "fish" in their name!

Scientists discovered that they're able to do this by using their complex system of 24 eyes which allows them to recognise obstacles.

They can then learn from past experiences in a process called associative learning.

Anders Garm, a marine biologist from the University of Copenhagen, explained that jellyfish can be trained to "predict a future problem and try to avoid it."

It's the first time that such simple creatures have been shown to have such abilities - until now it's only been seen in more complex animals.

Experts say the study shows that even simple animals are capable of learning and that it could help us understand more about how our own brains work.