Apr 19, 2025
A hungry armored sea cucumber orders room service from the currents that sweep along the seafloor. 🍽️
Psolus squamatus unfurls long, finely branched tentacles up into the water column. Their sticky mucus collects tiny plankton and bits of organic material. One by one, the sea cucumber sweeps those tentacles and food into their mouth.
Sometimes, we see white fields of armored sea cucumbers covering the rocky walls of Monterey Canyon and the slopes of neighboring seamounts, where strong currents provide a feast. In fact, up to 20 percent of all animals observed on some seamounts are Psolus.
