Tiny "panda skeletons": what kind of outlandish creatures live in the ocean off the coast of Japan?
In the last few years, divers diving in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the small tropical island of Kume belonging to Japan, have noticed colonies of funny, strange-looking sea creatures resembling pandas in their coloring. When photos of marine "pandas" appeared on the Internet, biologists became interested in them, whose article was published in the journal Species diversity.
It was retold in "Around the World": It turned out that this is still an undescribed species of ascidia — marine invertebrates that lead a sedentary lifestyle, growing to underwater rocks or rocky areas of the bottom. Ascidia filter out seawater and feed on the organic particles contained in it.
The new species received the scientific name Clavelina ossipandae. Scientists have established that these two—centimeter creatures belong to the genus Clavelina (translated from Latin - a bottle, which resembles the body shape of such ascidians).
Ossipandae consists of two words: ossi — bone, because the white stripes running horizontally along the body of these ascidians make them look like skeletons. In fact, these "bones" are blood vessels. The black spots in the upper part of the ascidian body are arranged in such a way that they resemble the eyes and nose of a panda (pandae).
In the future, scientists plan to study the habitats, behavior and role of Clavelina ossipandae in the giant ocean ecosystem. Perhaps this will help to understand why they are so unusually colored.
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