Our Bizarre Relatives: A Sea Squirt Family Album

News
By Wynne Parry
published

A Meat Eater

Carnivorous Sea Squirt

(Image credit: Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory, WHOI/Jess Adkins, Caltech.)

A new species of carnivorous sea squirt was discovered in the deep sea off Australia. The creature traps nearby fish in a manner similar to a Venus flytrap.

Power of Regeneration

Sea Squirt Regeneration

(Image credit: Ram Reshef et al., PLoS Biology)

The colonial sea squirt Botrylloides leachi can regenerate its entire body from just tiny blood vessel fragments. The entire process, which partially resembles the early stages of embryonic development, takes as little as a week to produce an adult sea squirt.

Wynne Parry
Wynne Parry
Wynne was a reporter at The Stamford Advocate. She has interned at Discover magazine and has freelanced for The New York Times and Scientific American's web site. She has a masters in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Utah.