What is "scyphozoa"

1. n. any of various usually free-swimming marine coelenterates having a gelatinous medusoid stage as the dominant phase of its life cycle

2. [also: scyphozoa (pl)]

See scyphozoan

The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, referred to as the true jellyfish (or "true jellies").

The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word skyphos (σκύφος), denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the cup shape of the organism.

Scyphozoans have existed, in geological time, from the Ediacaran period to the present.