Immortal jellyfish Coloring Pages

The Immortal jellyfish gets younger as it gets older!

The most amazing thing about the Immortal jellyfish is that even when it gets old and weak, it can turn back into a baby and start life all over again! Most living things die when they get old. But when the Immortal jellyfish feels danger or gets weak, it turns into a tiny ball. Then it changes back into a young sprout called a polyp. From there, it is born again as a brand-new jellyfish! Unless it gets eaten or sick, it can repeat this turn-back trick over and over. That is why people all around the world are so excited about the Immortal jellyfish!

Its Japanese name comes from its pretty red belly

Its friendly Japanese name, Beni-kurage (Red Jellyfish), comes from its bright red belly. The stomach and other inside parts in the middle of its clear body look just like shiny red jewels! In English, people call it the Immortal jellyfish because of its amazing superpower. Its scientific name, "Turritopsis," means "little tower." It describes the pretty, bell-like shape of its body.

Surprise! It is smaller than a grain of rice

It looks big in the coloring page pictures, but a real Immortal jellyfish is super tiny! Even when it grows into a full adult, its whole body is only about 4 to 5 millimeters across. That is about the size of one single grain of rice! It is much smaller than your pinky fingernail. It is so tiny that it is very hard to spot when it swims in the sea.

How the magical change to a polyp works

When the Immortal jellyfish turns back into a baby, a special trick happens inside its body. Its tiny body parts turn into completely different kinds of parts! If it gets hurt or the sea water gets bad, it flips its umbrella upside down. It pulls its arms inside and rolls into a tiny ball. When that ball sticks to a rock or a shell on the sea floor, it turns into a "polyp" that grows like a small plant sprout. Soon, young jellyfish pop out of it one after another. Its life gets a fresh start!

The secret of having more arms as it grows older

Many thin, thread-like arms grow from the edge of the Immortal jellyfish's umbrella. When it is a newborn baby jellyfish, it has only about 8 arms. But as it eats food and grows up, it gets more and more arms! By the time it becomes an adult, it has 80 to 90 or more arms. They grow all around its umbrella and spread out beautifully in the sea.

A bell-shaped umbrella as clear as glass

The top half of the Immortal jellyfish is a clear umbrella. It looks just like shiny, polished glass! It has a pretty bell shape, and its squishy body is full of water. Because its body is totally clear, you can see its bright red belly right through it. You can even see the food it catches as it eats!

Boys, girls, and making new life

Just like humans and fish, the Immortal jellyfish can be a boy or a girl. When they grow into adults, boys make sperm and girls make eggs inside their bright red bellies. They release them into the sea to make baby eggs. The eggs turn into tiny swimming babies called "planulae." Soon, they stick to rocks and become polyps. Besides its turning-younger superpower, it can also meet a partner and make new life just like other animals!

A tiny hunter catching plankton

The Immortal jellyfish is as small as a grain of rice, but it is a great hunter in the sea! Its long, thin arms have tiny poison darts. When tiny sea bugs or baby shrimp touch them, the darts sting them so they cannot move. Then, the jellyfish carries the food through its mouth into its bright red stomach to turn it into energy!

Living right near us in the seas of Japan

The Immortal jellyfish is a rare and amazing creature, but it actually lives in many seas around Japan! It likes warm and calm places near the coast. You can find it from warm southern seas all the way to the waters near Japan. It lives in warm seas all around the world, too. People think it travels the oceans by sticking to the bottom of ships or hitching a ride in sea water!

A superstar for scientists saving our future

The Immortal jellyfish's superpower gives big dreams to human doctors and scientists. If we learn how grown-up body parts can turn young again, it might help us make new medicine! It could help fix sick people or heal hurt bodies and organs. Scientists all over the world are super excited to study the Immortal jellyfish!

The contrast between the see-through umbrella and bright red tummy

The best trick for coloring the Immortal jellyfish is making a big difference between the see-through umbrella outside and the bright tummy (stomach) in the middle! For the tummy in the middle, try using red, vermilion, or pink to color it in dark and clear. For the big bell-shaped umbrella on the outside, leave a lot of white paper showing instead of coloring it all dark. Just add very light blue or soft purple around the edges and curved lines. This gives it a glassy, see-through look so you can see the red tummy inside!

Let's draw each tiny, delicate tentacle one by one

When you look at the Immortal jellyfish coloring page, you can see tons of tentacles spreading out from under its umbrella! Make sure your color pencil is super sharp to color these nicely. The trick is to slide your pencil smoothly along each line using light pink, yellow, or whitish colors. Make the tentacles in front a bit darker, and make the ones in the back light blue or gray. This makes them look like 3D tentacles floating and waving over each other in the water!

How to add light and shadow to make the round umbrella shiny and 3D

If you color the round bell-shaped umbrella all with just one color, it will look flat. To make it look squishy and 3D, try to leave a round white spot of paper at the highest, roundest part of the umbrella! Leaving this white spot makes it look shiny, like sun or aquarium lights bouncing off it. Then, gently add light blue or gray shadows to the inside curves and along the edges. This will make its round 3D body pop right out!

Use the cool features of your art tools to boost the see-through look

Your picture will look even cooler if you change how you color depending on your art tools! When you use colored pencils, press softly and layer colors gently over and over. This makes a soft blend that melts into the water. If you use crayons, color the bright red tummy dark, then rub it gently with your fingertip to smudge it. This gives it a warm glow! If you use watercolors, mix in lots of water and brush on light blue or pink so it bleeds softly. It will look just like a dreamy, real-life underwater world!

Add deep sea colors and a background to make a magical world

Once you finish coloring the Immortal jellyfish, let's draw the ocean world all around it! If you fill the whole background with dark colors like deep navy, cobalt blue, or dark night blue, the Immortal jellyfish's red tummy and clear body will stand out brightly. It will look just like a magical picture under aquarium lights! You can also draw your own round water bubbles floating up, or yellow rays of light shining down from above. This will bring your picture to life and make the best coloring page in the whole world, made just by you!

The secret of becoming young again as it gets old

The biggest feature of the Immortal jellyfish is that when it gets old or hurt, it can turn back into a newborn baby (polyp). Because it can become young again and again, scientists all over the world are studying this amazing, immortal creature that can live on without dying.

A tiny body that fits on your fingertip

Even though the Immortal jellyfish is famous for its mysterious power, its body is actually only about 4 to 5 millimeters big. It is so tiny that it can fit on your fingernail or fingertip! It is a lovely little jellyfish that you can hardly find in the sea unless you look very carefully.

Where the name comes from

If you look closely inside the clear cap of the Immortal jellyfish, you will see a bright red organ in the middle. Because you can see its bright crimson insides shining through clearly, it was given a name that means "crimson jellyfish" in Japanese.

Many delicate tentacles that reach out

Even with a body as small as a fingertip, it has up to 80 thin tentacles growing from the edge of its cap. As it floats gently in the sea, it uses these delicate tentacles to catch and eat tiny plankton that you can barely see.

A traveler in warm oceans all around the world

Immortal jellyfish live in warm oceans all around the world, including the coast of Japan. They ride to different places by sticking to the bottom of ships or mixing into ship water, and they live strongly in seas all across the globe.