A team of researchers has discovered interesting details about a method of self-repair among moon jellyfish after finding that it re-arranges its remaining limbs to regain symmetry after losing one of its eight original limbs.

According to team’s researchers the moon jellyfish with a scientific name of Aurelia aurita, is one of the most commonly studied species of jellyfish in the world.

Scientists nowadays are busy knowing about a unique ability of this creature i.e. its ability to self-repair itself after an injury to regain symmetry.

Michael Abrams, one of the researchers working with the jellyfish at the California Institute of Technology, said, “We’ve not observed another self-repair mechanism. It kind of broadens our definition, a little bit, of self-repair”.

Researchers during the study focused on moon jellyfish during the stage also known as ephyrae. At this stage the jellies are one centimeter in diameter, although at this time their limbs behave as they do in their adult state.

During the study when researchers removed one of their limbs and moved them into their natural salt-water environment, they did not re-grow the limb as expected. Instead, researchers noted that the jellies were able to move their remaining limbs in order to regain their symmetry.

The scientists at Caltech said they were surprised seeing the results, but they believed that the function of re-arranging their limbs is essential for their survival.

Abrams in explanation stated that the jellyfish rely on the symmetry of their limbs to swim and consume food.

The moon jellyfish were able to re-arrange their limbs through pulsing of their muscles, which allowed the creature to pull its arms into new positions as it swims, said researchers.

Researchers hope this re-arranging function of the moon jellyfish can be applied to damaged robots, which may not be able to grow back a mechanical part but may be able to re-arrange themselves to re-gain functionality after suffering damage.