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Flowers of the Sea
Sea anemones , though considered the flowers of the sea for their graciously flowing tentacles and array of colours , are not plants at all . The tentacled organism are meat - eating animals that typically bond themselves to the seafloor or coral reefs . Here , a sea anemone grows on the jolty bottom of a kelp forest off Monterey , California . Sea windflower come in all sizing , shapes and colour . Here ’s a look at some of their diversity .
Deadly Undersea Beauty
The tendril of a ocean anemone bring to mind the petals of a flower — but these petals snack . ocean anemone are predatory animals . Their tentacles are dot with venomous cell called nematocysts , which release toxin into quarry such as fish and crustaceans , paralyze the dupe for easy digestion .
clown anemonefish
Two orangish and white clown anemonefish swim through a bed of tan sea anemone fingerbreadth .
Clownfish
Clownfish , made famous in the moving-picture show " Finding Nemo , " support and reinforce their social status with by blab , in this case certain pop and click , among a bed of sea anemones .
Alien Anemone
look almost unreal with its green - and - purple color scheme , this sea anemone adorn the ocean floor near Chuuk , one of the Federated States of Micronesia . Despite the vegetative expression , anemone are actually animals that feed on belittled Pisces and crustacean .
Wanna Polyp?
My , how many tentacle you have ! This alien - looking puppet is known asNematostella vectensis , or the starlet sea sea anemone . Like other anemone , starlets part living as detached - swimming larva . They then settle into an appropriately mucky spot on the seafloor and transfigure into their adult polyp configuration , seen here . Anemones want brains , but the section of the larvae arrest the sensory organ actually becomes the bulbous root end of the grownup , while the other side sprouts delicate tentacles and transmute into a filter - feeding oral fissure . Researchers have now find that the " pass gene " ofN. vectensis , though hold in what finally becomes the creature ’s " foot , " fit to the head genes found in the real head of high fauna . Humans and other smart as a whip beasts share a common , brainless , root with ocean anemones that endure 600 million to 700 million years ago . The determination were released Feb. 20 , 2013 in the diary PLOS Biology .
Sea anemone
fold - up of the sea - anemone , Aiptasia . mark the symbiotic alga , symbiodinum ( the brown back breaker ) in the tissue of the animal tissue paper .
New sea anemone species lives on ice
A newfangled mintage of sea anemone , Edwardsiella andrillae , anchor in the ice at the underside of the Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica ; one anemone has an unknown being , nicknamed the " eggroll , " holding on to it .
Seeing Purple
A over-embellished sea anemone ( around 6 in , or 15 centimeters , across ) clingstone to a pumice stone rock along the east crater rampart of West Rota vent . windflower are break feeders , capturing zooplankton with their tentacle .
Flytrap Anemone
Look out ! This flytrap anemone was seen by an exploration team in 2002 at the Davidson Seamount , or submarine island settle southwestward of Monterey , California ; it ’s one of the largest roll in the hay seamounts in U.S. waters . The flytrap sea anemone ( Actinoscyphia aurelia ) , which resembles the Venus flytrap , closes its tentacles to enamor target or to protect itself .
