Hamner and Dawson proposed that the difference is caused by evolutionary change driven by the jellyfish-eating anemones ("Entacmaea medusivora") that inhabit the eastern regions of Jellyfish Lake and Clear Lake. The jellyfish instinctively avoid shadows and in the morning with the shadows on the eastern end the jellyfish also avoid the anemones. By moving east to west in the early afternoon the jellyfish avoid the time of day when the setting sun would eliminate shadows on the lake in the eastern end and thereby avoid the anemones in the afternoon.