SEA CUCUMBERS: Holothuroidea
CANDY CANE SEA CUCUMBER (Thelenota rubralineata): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
SEA APPLE (Pseudocolochirus violaceus): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
SEA PIG (Scotoplanes globosa): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Sea cucumbers are soft-bodied sea animals that have a traffic circle of five to twenty tentacles around the mouth. Some ocean cucumbers have a slurred, muscular body wall, but others are clear and gelatinous. Most sea cucumbers look like slurred worms or slugs, but some are u-shaped. Depending on the species, the tentacles are simple, digitate, featherlike, or flat and shovel- or shieldlike. The large tube feet of some ocean cucumbers make them look barbed. Most ocean cucumbers are about 20 inches ( 51 centimeters ) long, although some are lone a divide of an column inch ( millimeters ) long and others are longer than 10 feet ( 3 meters ). Sea cucumbers that live in strong, shallow body of water normally are bright green, bolshevik, orange, or yellow. Most ocean cucumbers that live in deep, open water are dark. Those that live in deep water but burrow in the bottomland are picket grey to white, although some are acquit, light purple, or pink. The water-circulating organization that powers the tube feet of sea cucumbers is made up of a ring canal around the throat and hanker canals that run from the call to the back of the animal. In ocean stars and other relatives of sea cucumbers, the water-circulating arrangement exchanges water with the environment through a strainer home plate that opens to the outside. In most sea cucumbers, however, the strainer plate is inside the animal and opens into the body pit. In about all sea cucumbers, the skeleton of the body wall is made up of microscopic bonelike parts that look like rods, roses, crosses, buttons, tables, or wheels and anchors, among other shapes. In some sea cucumbers, these parts are large and placoid and make the animal rigid. Another important feature of speech of the skeleton is a hard call around the throat. This ring is an attachment come on for the muscles that move the mouth tentacles and for the advancing ends of the muscles that contract the body lengthways.
GEOGRAPHIC RANGE
Sea cucumbers live all over the world .
HABITAT
Sea cucumbers live in all sea habitats, ranging from areas exposed at first gear tide to the bed of the deepest separate of the ocean. Some species live on wave-hammered reef crests and rough shorelines. many species live on hard bottoms. Others burrow in backbone or mire. Some species swim miles above the ocean deck .
DIET
Sea cucumbers eat alga, plankton, bacteria, and waste particles. Algae ( AL-jee ) are plantlike growths that live in water and have no true roots, stems, or leaves. Plankton is microscopic plants and animals drifting in water .
BEHAVIOR AND REPRODUCTION
Most sea cucumbers are slow-moving animals. Some rear up and extend their front ends into the water when releasing eggs and sperm. Some wind violently or inflate when they meet a predator. Some deep-sea species can swim. Bottom dwellers wander in an obviously random way as they feed. many tropical species of sea cucumbers are active at night, staying in crevices or under the backbone during the day .
DID YOU KNOW?
Regions deeper than about 18,000 feet ( 5,500 meters ) are only about one percentage of the area of the ocean floor. These astuteness consist of trenches about 7 miles ( 11 kilometers ) deep. Sea cucumbers dominate the animal life of this region. One species of sea cucumber lives in waters ampere shallow as 230 feet ( 70 meters ) and vitamin a bass as 33,000 feet ( 10,000 meters ). Some ocean cucumbers have toxins in their body wall that generate a smack that keeps fishes away. early ocean cucumbers defend themselves by shooting tubes out their anus ( AY-nuhs ). The tube become very farseeing and gluey, entangling predators or scaring them away. Some ocean cucumbers defend themselves by ejecting their internal organs—some through the head by breaking off the tentacle crown and others through the anus. The sea cucumbers survive the organ ejection, and the organs grow back. Sea cucumbers use their tentacles for eat. Some sea cucumbers scoop up sandpaper or mire with shovel-shaped tentacles. Others lash the surface with featherlike tentacles. still others scoop up food particles as they burrow with digitate tentacles. Some sea cucumbers have branched tentacles that are thinly coated in mucus and extend into the current to capture alga and plankton. food sticks to the mucus, and the sea cucumber brings the tentacles into its mouth one at a time to wipe them clean by contracting muscles around its throat. Some species of sea cucumbers have distinguish sexes, and others make both sperm and eggs. At least one deep-sea species forms pairs. Some ocean cucumbers, chiefly those that live in warm water and those that live in the deep sea, release eggs and sperm into the water, where they unite and larvae develop. Larvae ( LAR-vee ) are animals in an early stage that change form before becoming adults. In other species, chiefly those that live near the shore or in cold water, females use their tentacles to gather up the eggs as they are being released and keep them on their bellies or in extra pouches for development. In a few species the larva develop inside the female ‘s soundbox pit. Some sea cucumber larva are non-feeding but have fat stored in them and develop directly into adults. other ocean cucumber larva have a feed stage in which they drift in the water. They then transform from a bilateral to a five-armed torso plan and settle on the bottomland as miniature adults. Adults of some warm-water species of sea cucumbers may besides reproduce by splitting in half .
SEA CUCUMBERS AND PEOPLE
People in several asian and Pacific Island countries eat ocean cucumbers in a serve called trepang. Sea cucumbers besides are used in aquariums. The toxins in ocean cucumber skin are being studied for use as drugs .
TREPANG
Dried and processed sea cucumbers, called trepang ( trih-PANG ) or bêche-de-mer ( besh-duh-MEHR ) are sold as a fragility in Asia, where they form the footing of a multimillion dollar industry. demand for trepang is increasing, and overfishing is a threat in many areas. The most valuable species for trepang are slow-growing, durable ocean cucumbers that live in warm, shoal urine, where they are easily harvested .
CONSERVATION STATUS
Sea cucumbers are not considered threatened or endangered. Physical characteristics: Candy cane sea cucumbers are colorful and large, a long as 20 inches ( 51 centimeters ). The entire body is covered with pointed metro feet. Candy cane sea cucumbers have a bright crimson pattern of stripes on a white background and have about twenty dollar bill dull red peltate tentacles .
Geographic range: Candy cane ocean cucumbers live in the southwest part of the Pacific Ocean .
Habitat: Candy cane sea cucumbers live on sand patches on reefs 20 to 200 feet ( 6 to 60 meters ) deep .
Diet: Candy cane sea cucumbers eat food particles they find in the sand. Behavior and reproduction: Candy cane sea cucumbers crawl exposed on the reef during the sidereal day and at night. When disturbed they curl up by bringing their front and back ends together. Candy cane sea cucumbers release their eggs and sperm into the water, where they unite and develop into larva, which transform into young sea cucumbers that develop into adults .
Candy cane sea cucumbers and people: Candy cane sea cucumbers are harvested by accident with sea cucumbers that are used to make trepang.
Conservation status: Candy cane sea cucumbers are not considered threatened or endangered. ∎ Physical characteristics: Sea apples are colorful sea cucumbers about 7 inches ( 18 centimeters ) retentive. They normally are purple. Three rows of tube feet run along the bed side of the animal. The top side has two rows of tube feet ampere well as small scattered tube feet. The body is curved sol that the talk and anus point up. The ten tentacles are bushy purple to crimson and have ashen tips. The pieces of the body wall skeleton are rounded, fluent plates with a few holes .
Geographic range: Sea apples live in the indian Ocean and the western function of the Pacific Ocean .
Habitat: Sea apples live on hard material, such as coral reefs, in urine equally cryptic as 40 feet ( 12 meters ) in areas with a current .
Diet: Sea apples feed plant plankton .
Behavior and reproduction: Sea apples live partially hidden to in full exposed with tentacles expanded, even during the day. They feed continuously, capturing large food particles with outstretched branching tentacles that are lightly coated in mucus. Sea apples have separate sexes. Males handout sperm and females release eggs into the urine, where they unify and where the larva develop. The larva transform into young sea apples that develop into adults .
Sea apples and people: Sea apples have no known importance to people .
Conservation status: Sea apples are not considered threatened or endangered. ∎ Physical characteristics: Sea pigs are clear sea cucumbers 2 to 4 inches ( 5 to 10 centimeters ) retentive. They have ten tentacles and a few boastfully tube feet. The metro feet on the top side of ocean pigs are two wide spaced antennalike pairs. The early tube feet are arranged in a row around the edge of the penetrate side of the animal. The pieces of the body wall skeleton are smooth to spiny rods and smaller C-shaped rods. Sea pigs are besides called sea cows because the metro feet on the exceed side of the body look like cattle horns .
Geographic range: Sea pigs live all over the worldly concern except the northern depart of the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern separate of the Pacific Ocean near Central and South America .
Habitat: Sea pigs live in the deep ocean. Diet: Sea pigs eat food particles they find in the backbone. Behavior and reproduction: Sea pigs move above the bottom using farseeing pipe feet. These sea cucumbers form big groups. Sea pigs feed by using their tentacles to push backbone or mire into their mouth. Scientists do not know how sea pigs reproduce .
Sea pigs and people: Sea pigs have no known importance to people .
Conservation status: Sea pigs are not considered threatened or endangered. ∎
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Books:
Carson, Rachel. The Edge of the Sea. 1955. Reprint, Boston : Mariner, 1998. Niesen, Thomas M. The Marine Biology Coloring Book. 2nd erectile dysfunction. New York : HarperResource, 2000.
Periodicals:
Summers, Adam. “ Catch and Release : Sea Cucumbers Might Put a Torn Achilles Tendon Back together Again. ” Natural History ( November 2003 ) : 36–37 .
Web sites:
“ frequently Asked Questions of the Sea Cucumber. ” Charles Darwin Research Station. hypertext transfer protocol : //www.darwinfoundation.org/marine/FAQcuke.html ( accessed on March 14, 2005 ). “ Sea Cucumbers. ” Thinkquest. hypertext transfer protocol : //library.thinkquest.org/J001418/seacuc.html ( accessed on March 2, 2005 ) .
