The free-swimming larval stage of certain jellyfish (medusae) that develops from a polyp.
Named after Ephyra, a city in ancient Greece, by early naturalists studying jellyfish development. The term was applied to this life stage by 18th-century scientists.
Jellyfish transform from stationary polyps to free-swimming ephyrae through a process called strobilation—they literally slice themselves into tiny jellyfish copies, which is absolutely wild.
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