Posted on 01/24/2012 3:50:17 PM PST by nickcarraway
Newquay’s Blue Reef Aquarium is showcasing a bizarre apple-shaped sea cucumber from Australia in a new toxic display.
The sea apple is a type of sea cucumber which is also related to urchins and starfish.
It gets its name from its apple-shaped appearance and is brightly coloured to alert would-be predators to its deadly toxins.
Blue Reef curator Matt Slater said: “It’s the first time we have been able to put sea apples on display and they really are extremely unusual creatures.
“We’ve had to keep them in their own display away from the other fish as they are extremely dangerous and contain highly dangerous toxins within their body tissues.
“In addition to their toxicity, the sea apples also possess the ability to expel their internal organs to distract predators.
“One final trick they use is to consume large amounts of surrounding seawater to swell to nearly double their original size. This enables them to be moved to a new area by water currents much more quickly than they could walk,” he added.
The bodies and tentacles of sea apples come in many different colourings. The Australian species has a primarily purple body, red feet, and purple and white tentacles.
The sea apple feeds primarily on plankton, which it filters from the water with its tentacles. They alternately bring each tentacle to its mouth, feeding itself from the captured plankton.
Sea apples usually feed at night, when their delicate tentacles are less at risk from predators.
They share their new display with a colony of their close relative and fellow echinoderm the candy sea cucumber.
“It’s quite unusual to have an aquarium display without any fish in it but these are such bizarre creatures that we felt they deserved it,” added Matt.
“Echinoderms like the sea apples are thought to be most closely related to the early vertebrates so in some ways they’re actually our distant evolutionary ancestors!”
Looks more like a moldy cantaloupe.
Or a turnip decorated for Mardi Gras.
It does look like something in the back of the fridge you forgot about.
Or Barney Frank bloviating on the House Floor...
LOL...although I'm guessing the sea apple has more normal sexual practices...
Oh, really?
Echinoderms are exclusively marine invertebrates, so how in the world are they "closely related" to early vertebrates?
Sheesh...
I bet Ron Paul can do that.
I bet Ron Paul can do that.
He does like to vent his spleen occasionally. Does that count?
TS
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Obviously, the science reporter is a bit challenged when it comes to understanding science. I think what he meant is, of all living inverterbrates, they think echinoderms are the most closely related to the early vertebrates. Of course, if that’s true, it means they could be our very, very, very distant cousins, not our distant evolutionary ancestors.
But either way, it's symptomatic of an intrinsic laziness (and/or sloppiness) in science reporting today. To be honest, I trust NOTHING that is printed in any natural science journal.
Except, of course, if the subject is anthropogenic global warming. They're always right about that.
snort!
Wilson?
That would certainly do it for me.
Go swimming? Watch out for the toxic box jellyfish, and there's a good chance you'll accidentally run into the little, tiny, itty bitty Irukandji jellyfish, which is nearly transparent and less than 1" in size. But they'll both kill you. Try to hug the bottom, well, you'll die there too when you get too close to a blue ringed octopus. And then your corpse will be ripped to shreds by a great white shark.
If you venture on land, you'll want to avoid the snakes... I believe that 7 of the world's 10 most venomous snakes call Australia home. So you'll want to stay in your yard... Watch out for the Bulldog and Jack Jumper Ants... They can kill you too... Want to stay in the big city? One of the world's most venomous (and most aggressive) spiders is the Sydney Funnel Web Spider... Yeah, they'll kill you too!
Mark
That does it. I've seen Reid and Pelosi do this countless times during press conferences. That and the obvious resemblance of that picture to both of them PROVES that the bit about evolutionary ancestors is correct.
Well, that is certainly special.
“Cocoon: The Next Generation”?
“Blue Men Group”?
Michael Moore in sea-drag?
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