Sea Anemone Unique Design
by Owen Borville
July 31, 2020
Biology
The sea anemone is a family of unique marine, predatory invertebrate animals and are named after the terrestrial flowering plant. Therefore, it looks like a flower or plant, but is actually a sea animal. Sea anemones range in size from half an inch to six feet in diameter. Sea anemones have a cylindrical body, a pedal disc foot, and many colorful tentacles but no skeleton or bones. Sea anemones are found throughout the world's oceans, but are more abundant in shallow, tropical waters. Anemones eat through their mouths and also eject waste through the same mouth.
Locomotion
Sea anemones have several methods of relatively slow locomotion. Some varieties of sea anemone can swim by using their tentacles, but most stay in one place attached to the seafloor, rocks, coral reefs, or other objects in the ocean. Sea anemones can also move by sliding or using their pedal disc that works as a foot. Some sea anemones float in the water instead of attaching to an object, aided by gas in their bodies.
Defense Mechanisms and Prey
Most sea anemones are harmless to humans, but some varieties are highly toxic. Sea anemones capture and eat floating zooplankton and other marine organisms (mussels, fish, shrimp, larvae, worms) around them with their long, poisonous, stinging tentacles. These tentacles paralyze prey, inject toxins, and bring the prey into their mouth, which is inside the ring of tentacles. Most sea anemones are only poisonous to their prey. Because their locomotion is relatively slow, anemones would be vulnerable to predators without their stinging tentacles. Therefore, how could these stinging tentacles evolve fast enough before the anemone was wiped out of the ocean? The sea anemone must have had these stinging tentacles from the beginning of creation.
Sea Anemone Symbiosis With Other Animals
Hermit crabs will attach sea anemones to their shells to provide camouflage.
Green algae provide food for the anemone, while anemone provides a safe place for the algae to live.
Clownfish are immune to sea anemone stings with a thick mucus layer, the only fish immune to the tentacles, and clean the anemone's tentacles, which provide the clownfish with food. How did this immunity evolve? The clownfish also provides the anemone with scraps of food. Each protects the other from predators as the anemone's tentacles protect the clownfish and the clownfish scares away predatory fish. Sea anemones also get better water circulation as the clownfish swims around and fans its fins.
Sea Anemone Reproduction
In addition to sexual and asexual reproduction, a sea anemone can reproduce by lateral fission, where an identical sea anemone is sprouted from its side. The anemone actually splits in half to produce a new anemone or clone.
Complex DNA Baffles Scientists and Shows Unique Design and Creation
Sea anemones were once thought to be simple organisms, but recent research from Ohio State University has shown that anemone DNA are not arranged in the classical donut shape, but instead are arranged in several fragmented pieces. The anemone also holds the record for the largest mitochondrial DNA genome to date, with 81,000 base pairs of genetic information, while human DNA contains less than 17,000 base pairs.
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-simple-sea-anemones.html
by Owen Borville
July 31, 2020
Biology
The sea anemone is a family of unique marine, predatory invertebrate animals and are named after the terrestrial flowering plant. Therefore, it looks like a flower or plant, but is actually a sea animal. Sea anemones range in size from half an inch to six feet in diameter. Sea anemones have a cylindrical body, a pedal disc foot, and many colorful tentacles but no skeleton or bones. Sea anemones are found throughout the world's oceans, but are more abundant in shallow, tropical waters. Anemones eat through their mouths and also eject waste through the same mouth.
Locomotion
Sea anemones have several methods of relatively slow locomotion. Some varieties of sea anemone can swim by using their tentacles, but most stay in one place attached to the seafloor, rocks, coral reefs, or other objects in the ocean. Sea anemones can also move by sliding or using their pedal disc that works as a foot. Some sea anemones float in the water instead of attaching to an object, aided by gas in their bodies.
Defense Mechanisms and Prey
Most sea anemones are harmless to humans, but some varieties are highly toxic. Sea anemones capture and eat floating zooplankton and other marine organisms (mussels, fish, shrimp, larvae, worms) around them with their long, poisonous, stinging tentacles. These tentacles paralyze prey, inject toxins, and bring the prey into their mouth, which is inside the ring of tentacles. Most sea anemones are only poisonous to their prey. Because their locomotion is relatively slow, anemones would be vulnerable to predators without their stinging tentacles. Therefore, how could these stinging tentacles evolve fast enough before the anemone was wiped out of the ocean? The sea anemone must have had these stinging tentacles from the beginning of creation.
Sea Anemone Symbiosis With Other Animals
Hermit crabs will attach sea anemones to their shells to provide camouflage.
Green algae provide food for the anemone, while anemone provides a safe place for the algae to live.
Clownfish are immune to sea anemone stings with a thick mucus layer, the only fish immune to the tentacles, and clean the anemone's tentacles, which provide the clownfish with food. How did this immunity evolve? The clownfish also provides the anemone with scraps of food. Each protects the other from predators as the anemone's tentacles protect the clownfish and the clownfish scares away predatory fish. Sea anemones also get better water circulation as the clownfish swims around and fans its fins.
Sea Anemone Reproduction
In addition to sexual and asexual reproduction, a sea anemone can reproduce by lateral fission, where an identical sea anemone is sprouted from its side. The anemone actually splits in half to produce a new anemone or clone.
Complex DNA Baffles Scientists and Shows Unique Design and Creation
Sea anemones were once thought to be simple organisms, but recent research from Ohio State University has shown that anemone DNA are not arranged in the classical donut shape, but instead are arranged in several fragmented pieces. The anemone also holds the record for the largest mitochondrial DNA genome to date, with 81,000 base pairs of genetic information, while human DNA contains less than 17,000 base pairs.
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-simple-sea-anemones.html
