Surprising jellyfish finding challenges what’s known about learning and memory

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. After years of working with the Caribbean box jellyfish, the team was not shocked to find the animals could learn, but “it was a surprise how fast” they learned, Bielecki said. Caribbean box jellyfish, also known by the scientific name Tripedalia cystophora, have 24 eyes — six in each of four visual sensory centers called rhopalia. “They increased performance in all the parameters that we measured for obstacle avoidance.” Caribbean box jellyfish, also known by the scientific name Tripedalia cystophora, have 24 eyes — six in each of four visual sensory centers called rhopalia. He added that the study clearly demonstrated the animal’s ability to learn and it has him wondering “how long their memory lasts.” While getting his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, Abrams worked on a 2017 study about the upside-down jellyfish and its “sleep-like state,” which was “also once considered to be a behavior only existing in animals with a central nervous system.”