A Nudibranch laying an egg spiral on a Polycarpa aurata sea squirt.
5 favourite cephalopods: the one with all of them.
I quite like doing strings of themed posts like that.
Cephalopods are just beautiful, amazing & incredibly intelligent animals. Anyways, here they are, if anyones interested (top to bottom, left to right, click through for orignal post):
1. Dosidicus gigas, The Humboldt Squid. Or in spanish, Diablo Rojo (Red Devil)
2. Tremoctopus, the Blanket Octopus
3. Enteroctopus Dofleini, The Giant Pacific Octopus
4. Todarodes pacificus, Japanese Flying Squid
5. Wunderpus photogenicus, The Wonderpus
Irrelephant wanted some information on Sea Squirts/ascidians, so here we go. Prepare for some proper marine science.
I think ascidians are actually somewhat ignored, they’re some very beautiful animals. Consisting of around 2300 species it’s quite a diverse class although they all have some common characteristcs: They’re all sessile (attached to a hard substrate), they’re all filter feeders (meaning they filter out organic matter from the water column) and unlike other similar Tunicates they have a much tougher tunic made of polysaccharides. They can either be solitary or form colonies several meters in diameter. They have a relatively simple nervous system, with receptors for chemical changes, light and touch. All are hermaphroditic and capable of both asexual & sexual fragmentation.
Interestingly, Nudibranchs (amongst other animals) feed on them, but also use them as a substrate for egg attachment.
Due to the incredible filtering capabilites of these animals, they’re incredibly sensitive to pollution.
As for some interesting species, Polycarpa aurata and Rophalaea are incredibly pretty, but Didemnum (shown above overgrowing green algae) species might be more interesting due to it being a major invasive species (and only one of the many invasive sea squirts) and generally a big nuisance.
