Alien creature...

[FrediSub]

Image taken in Phillipines. Original photo author can't identify this creature... Anybody can identify this?

 

[archman]

I'll put a tentative I.D. as a sponge. The texture and shape conform, although there IS a great deal of variation in this phylum. The hole would be the osculum (water egress point), if its a sponge.

 

[jiveturkey]

Some form of a sea squirt?

 

[archman]

Some form of a sea squirt?

If it were a sea squirt (tunicate), there would be two holes side by side. Good guess though, better than most of my zoology students.

 

[Mako Mark]

If it were a sea squirt (tunicate), there would be two holes side by side. Good guess though, better than most of my zoology students.

but if it was a sponge it waould also show evidence of intake holes right?? and I cant see any in this photo.

 

[maractwin]

How big is it? It does look a bit like a closeup of one tentacle of a bubbletip anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor. But that only makes sense if it is small and there's a whole anemone hiding on the other side of that rock.

 

[archman]

but if it was a sponge it waould also show evidence of intake holes right?? and I cant see any in this photo.

The intakes (ostia) for sponges are extremely small, bordering on microscopic. The entire external body wall is pockmarked with them. Each ostium generally directs into a single body wall canal... these in turn all feed into the central chamber (spongocoel).

 

[FrediSub]

It was as big as a nut

 

[archman]

It was as big as a nut

That's what I figured. When sponges are this small, you commonly encounter simplistic-patterned morphologies like this. The "ball on a stalk" shape is one I've seen before.