Image: Deryk Tolman Botryllus schlosseri |
The Golden Star Tunicate is a pretty, little sea squirt which looks quite unlike some of their zombie heart and water jug relatives. Golden Stars by contrast exist as a thin layer, only a few millimetres thick, smeared on any available surface. They can be found decorating rocks, seaweed, boats, mussels and even some of those bigger sea squirts!
Image: James Lynott Relaxing with a big, sea squirt cousin |
Golden Star Tunicates live as colonies, usually about 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) across. Each colony is composed of numerous stars joined by blood vessels and embedded in a shared, fleshy mass.
Image: Malcolm Storey |
The stars are a mere 0.5 to 1 cm (0.2 to 0.4 in) across and bear anything up to a dozen or more points. Each point is an individual sea squirt, known as a zooid. Each zooid is like a tube, drawing water in through one end and passing it out the other. They filter the water as it goes and consume all the tasty plankton and detritus along the way.
Image: Melissa Frey, Royal BC Museum Worst jigsaw puzzle, ever |
It's like an organic jacuzzi. You can settle down on the soft, fleshy mass while the decorative stars tease your skin with their whispering wafts of water. They'll even clean the bath water! You need only prepare yourself to sit in a bath growing increasingly full of another animal's metabolic waste products.
Image: Phylogeny Figures Tadpole to founding zooid to young star surrounded by blood vessels to old star with budding clones |
After a couple months each zooid produces a few eggs which they hang onto and which will hopefully be fertilised promptly by a different colony. A couple days later all the same zooids release sperm and if the time lag is successful, they'll avoid self-fertilisation. With a colony of over a thousand zooids each harbouring a handful of eggs, that's a lot of tadpoles who will soon emerge to (probably get eaten but maybe, with a lot of luck) found a colony of their own.
Image: James Lynott Brightening up a gloomy scene |
Alas, not even wallpaper is immune to the chill wind of fickle fashion.
I like to think the ocean puts these guys on anything it finds worthy of recognition, after it failed to evolve a tunicate that looked like an "A+." If you want to catch one, just make a finger painting or maybe some macaroni art and let it sit in the ocean for a while.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if these would make a good background wallpaper for an aquarium ;)
ReplyDeletewow! just gorgeous! reminded me of henna tattoos for some reason. :)
ReplyDelete@Crunchy: Haha! Who knew the ocean could be so supportive and encouraging?
ReplyDelete@Porakiya Draekojin: It would look fantastic!
@TexWisGirl: Yeah, it's amazing how decorative they are!