#holothurian

[herpsandbirds]

I've only ever known your page to post animal content, have I just been missing these other types of posts forever? Lmao

Have you ever seen this sea cucumber?

Swimming Sea Cucumber aka Headless Chicken Monster (Enypniastes eximia), family Pelagothuriidae, order Elasipodida

Unlike most sea cucumbers, which are benthic (bottom dwelling), this species swims through the water column (nektonic).

images via: NOAA

[cylisse-ae]

Ask Corner - Heroes Heart Day Edition

Refer to this post for context.

Holothurian

The Hero opens their door to about fifty sea slugs sliming up the yard. All of them are Holothurian, or they were Holothurian. It might be more accurate to say that each of them is now a Holothurian.

Love comes in many different forms, but the kind that this Adeptus Kathooli feels for their Hero is selfish. Each Holothurian wants the Hero for themselves. Some have even decided that they want to be one with the Hero.

It led to the desire for individuality, destroying Holothurian as an amalgam. Their fellow Kultists agreed that this too was a form of ascension.

Slowly, the Hero begins to nod, understanding that they want no part in this. They slam the door shut, and one of the Holothurians slides a red rose under it. The Hero shoves it back out.

"I guess we're eating in today." They laugh to themselves, setting a pot to boil in their kitchen. Grabbing a wooden spoon from the drawer, the Hero dips it into the water and finds that it's filled with slugs.

Gasping, they stumble backwards and step on another Holothurian, slipping and falling into an entire slimy bed of them.

All of the slugs blush in unison.

"Eugh!" The Hero pulled a Holothurian off of their cheek, screaming in terror when they realized it had grown a face of its own. 

"Please…Eat me…" 

The Hero threw Holothurian at the wall and it exploded.

[nimalings]

#053: Cloudkip

You can find plenty of these critters high in the sky! They use their wing-like cape to leisurely soar from cloud to cloud, eating them along the way! They can often be seen hugging a little tuft of cloud with their arms, this is an emergency snack, gotta be prepared for cloudless days!

Inspired by Sea Pigs! (Both Scotoplanes and Enypniastes) And more specifically sea pigs that evolved to live in the clouds! From my Speculative Biology project!

[ketrinadrawsalot]

Sea Angels: Deep-Sea Holothurian

(or sea pig if you feel like saying fewer syllables)

[youneedone2]

Deep Sea - Transparant Sea Cucumber, Antarctica

[typhlonectes]

Sea Pigs (Scotoplanes spp.)

These see-through sea cucumbers snuffle across the seafloor to find tasty morsels in the mud.

Sea pigs (Scotoplanes sp.) are one of the most commonly sighted animals on the deep seafloor off Monterey Bay—but plentiful hardly means boring. Unlike most sea cucumbers, which have stumpy tube feet tucked beneath their bodies, sea pigs use their long, stilt-like tube feet to suspend their bodies above the soft mud. Huge groups have been spotted feasting near sunken whale carcasses. As common as they are, scientists are still trying to solve mysteries about sea pigs. One of the most puzzling remains why they sometimes give rides to “hitchhiking” juvenile king crabs, without any clear benefit to the sea pigs. MBARI researchers have observed deep-sea animals, including sea pigs, on the abyssal seafloor for decades and found that these communities can change dramatically and erratically over time. Despite decades of research, scientists are still not sure what drives these changes. Find more images, video and facts about our favorite little deep-sea sea cucumbers: https://www.mbari.org/.../creature.../sea-pig-landing-page/

via: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

[catadromously]

i talk so much about cephalopods when i’m working, i think it’s high time i pay a tribute to the helpful Holothurians! they’re weird and i like them

[todropscience]

GO AWAY AS SEA CUCUMBERS DO: They ballon up and hitch a ride on ocean currents.

Sea cucumbers, for a long time considered to be slow-moving sea creatures, are actually high-speed travelers, a new research reveals.

When they feel the need to move from a place to other, they basically inflated as a balloon, and move following sea current, floating and bouncing as if they were rolling balls.

Sea cucumbers are related to sea stars, sea urchins, brittle stars, and crinoids. Like other echinoderms, they have five-fold symmetry and move by means of hundreds of tiny, transparent, adhesive "tube feet"  but some of them lacks these and moves by crawling.

- Gif showing floating behavior in a sea cucumber. 

This behavior, called active buoyancy adjustment is achieved through a rapid increase in seawater to flesh ratio by up to 740%, leading to bloating, and simultaneously detachment from the seafloor. It has been recorded in captive sea cucumbers, as well in juveniles and in wild adult populations.

Video:  Video showing example of tumbling in the orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Reference: Hamel et al., 2019. Active buoyancy adjustment increases dispersal potential in benthic marine animals Journal of Animal Ecology