SEA ANEMONE

anatomy

RANGE OF MOTION

When the sea anemone closes its mouth, the water in the gut cavity acts as a hydrostatic skeleton, enabling it to expand longer and thinner or shorter and fatter or to bend in any direction.

2 key senses for survival

Sense of touch: The tentacles are armed with numerous cnidocytes that are triggered by the slightest touch, firing nematocysts to stun its prey, before pulling it into its mouth to gobble it up.

quirky characteristics

Sea anemones reproduce asexually, meaning they undergo internal fertilisation. The larvae remains inside the parent until it develops tentacles and moves away from the parent’s protection.

Most sea anemones have basal disc at the bottom that they use to attach themselves to a suitable surface.

The mouth of the sea anemone is also the anus.

RELATIONSHIP WITH STARFISH

Type of relationship: predator-prey

The starfish eats the sea anemone. The sea anemone wants to run far far away but how??

RELATIONSHIP WITH CLOWNFISH

Type of relationship: mutual symbiotic

Clownfish live between the anemone’s tentacles. The clownfish brings food to the anemone and the anemone protects the clownfish from predators with its venomous tentacles.

The clownfish is covered by a mucus layer that makes them immune to the anemone’s poisonous sting.

SOURCES

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/sea-anemones/
• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Anatomy-of-a-sea-anemone-Note-the-location-of-the-acontia-cinclides-and-acrorhagus_fig4_316858444
• https://www.britannica.com/science/muscle/Muscle-in-soft-animals#ref524247
• https://panique.com.au/trishansoz/great-barrier-reef/sea-anemone.html