Subipedia
SEA CUCUMBERS
SEA CUCUMBERS
The sea cucumber is not a vegetable, as it would be derived from the name. The sea cucumber is an animal.
It belongs to the echinoderms -echinodermata-. The feather-, sea- and brittle stars and the sea urchins also belong to this group.
500 million years ago they colonized the primordial ocean. After about 300 million years most of them died. The survivors developed in the course of evolution, in different variants. They colonized all habitats from shallow water to the lightless deep sea.
From the sea cucumbers - Holothuriodea - there are about 1200 species. All of them have a body tube with tiny calcareous bodies that give them a certain firmness. The mouth opening and anus are located at the respective ends. If you take a closer look at the anus, you can see that the five rays are radially symmetric, as it is the case with most starfish.
Through the mouth opening they take up the sand over which they crawl, guide the sand through their body and filter out the organic matter. The inorganic is excreted through the anus. With and through this process, the seabed is cleaned of organic residues.
An essential and important part of the coral reef ecosystem. Even if the sea cucumbers are not a visual high light at first sight, they do not deserve to swim carelessly past them.
Among them can be quite interesting and unique roommates.
Photos: Johann Vifian
Sources: Wikipedia / Lieske coral reef guide