Article ID: CBB998640343

The Chinese Freshwater Jellyfish Unbound: Evolution, Nomenclature, and Bioinvasion of Craspedacusta sowerbii, 1880–1941 (2024)

unapi

Jellyfish are commonly known as dangerous sea creatures that humans should avoid. Focusing on the newly discovered freshwater jellyfish in the late nineteenth century, this article explores a global history of Craspedacusta sowerbii, a species native to China first noted in nineteenth-century Britain but since traveling the world over. The worldwide distribution of C. sowerbii, as both polyps and medusae, made it a global subject of scientific inquiry. However, no independent study has examined the history behind the origin, circulation, and implication of the freshwater jellyfish and its relationship with marine types. The late nineteenth century was the period when our premodern knowledge of jellyfish transformed from it being purely a marine life to the modern recognition of jellyfish as both marine and freshwater organisms, triggered by the discovery and discussion of the Chinese freshwater jellyfish C. sowerbii among naturalists and philosophers. This article focuses on Arthur de Carle Sowerby’s engagement with C. sowerbii in terms of narratives of evolution, nomenclature, and bioinvasion between 1880 and 1941. I argue that jellyfish, as a lowly form of invertebrates, should be taken more seriously by historians of modern China and historians of biology who are interested in the diverse roles of animals in shaping human–animal interactions in the Anthropocene. While the scientific research of jellyfish’s global bloom abounds, the interpretation of the global rise of jellyfish could benefit from a historically and culturally bound analysis of this classical animal. This is particularly so as scientists recognized the diverse perceptions of jellyfish. The global jellyfish bloom requires historical perspectives on a topic that has hitherto received scant attention from historians of science.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB998640343/

Similar Citations

Book John Simons; (2024)
Goldfish in the Parlour: The Victorian craze for marine life (/isis/citation/CBB933871719/)

Article Kajihara, Hiroshi; (2004)
Usamaro Takakura (1867-1944), Japanese Pioneer Nemertean Researcher (/isis/citation/CBB000501100/)

Book Janet M. Davis; (2016)
The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America (/isis/citation/CBB505773835/)

Thesis Elizabeth A. McNeill; (2022)
Speaking of Animals: Animal Psychology between Experimental Science and Imagination (1840-1920) (/isis/citation/CBB890315766/)

Thesis Gravitte, Kristen Barber; (2013)
Animal Ethics and Ethical Animals: American Literature and Science, 1849--1906 (/isis/citation/CBB001567431/)

Book Roel Sterckx; Martina Siebert; Dagmar Schäfer; (2019)
Animals through Chinese History: Earliest Times to 1911 (/isis/citation/CBB327975736/)

Article Huber, Florian; (2013)
Spiegelbilder vom Meeresgrund. Leopold Blaschkas marine Aquarien (/isis/citation/CBB001212329/)

Article Anderson, Lyall I.; Lowe, Mathew; (2010)
Charles W. Peach and Darwin's Barnacles (/isis/citation/CBB001231387/)

Article Kushner, David J.; Rassweiler, Andrew; McLaughlin, John P.; Lafferty, Kevin D.; (2013)
A Multi-Decade Time Series of Kelp Forest Community Structure at the California Channel Islands (/isis/citation/CBB001421428/)

Article Pereira Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr; (2013)
Lamarck e a progressão da escala animal (/isis/citation/CBB001214028/)

Article Pearson, Chris; (2013)
Dogs, History, and Agency (/isis/citation/CBB001202107/)

Book Neal A. Knapp; (2023)
Making Machines of Animals: The International Livestock Exposition (/isis/citation/CBB636823316/)

Article Jones, Ryan Tucker; (2013)
Running into Whales: The History of the North Pacific from below the Waves (/isis/citation/CBB001212531/)

Book Marzano, Annalisa; (2013)
Harvesting the Sea: The Exploitation of Marine Resources in the Roman Mediterranean (/isis/citation/CBB001422646/)

Book Brunner, Bernd; (2005)
The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium (/isis/citation/CBB000650535/)

Book Brayton, Daniel; (2012)
Shakespeare's Ocean: An Ecocritical Exploration (/isis/citation/CBB001201603/)

Article Brandstetter, Thomas; Wessely, Christina; (2013)
Einleitung: Mobilis in mobili (/isis/citation/CBB001212326/)

Book Paul J. Smith; Florike Egmond; (2023)
Ichthyology in Context 1500-1880 (/isis/citation/CBB673178183/)

Authors & Contributors
Anderson, Lyall I.
Brandstetter, Thomas
Brayton, Daniel
Brunner, Bernd
Egmond, Florike
Gailus, Andreas
Journals
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
American Historical Review
Archives of Natural History
Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology
Ecology
Filosofia e História da Biologia
Publishers
Oxford University Press
University of Michigan
Cambridge University Press
Brill Academic Publishers
Johns Hopkins University Press
Princeton Architectural Press
Concepts
Marine biology
Human-animal relationships
Fishes
Animals
Invertebrate zoology
Zoology
People
Blaschka, Leopold
Darwin, Charles Robert
Gosse, Philip Henry
Shakespeare, William
Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Antoine Pierre de Monet de
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
16th century
20th century, late
Places
China
Great Britain
Rome (Italy)
California (U.S.)
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
Germany
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment