Anemone eating ?

[calypsonick]

Saw this anemone with a sheet like mass of eggs half way out of its mouth/stomach. Is it sending its eggs off or is it in the process of ingesting the egg mass ?

 

[archman]

Good gravy, those are bee-ootiful photos. Just like National Geographic. :11:

Now I may be off on this, but I've never heard reference to anemones laying eggs in sheets. They spawn much like their cousins the scleractinian corals, with either gametes or fertilized egg packets. I don't see a functional advantage in a sessile organism producing an egg mass of this size, and no analogies in the invertebrate world come to immediate mind.

But I don't know this particular species of anemone, nor it's reproductive mode. Perhaps someone else does on the board.

 

[hdtran]

It is likely to be performing, umm, #2...

 

[archman]

It is likely to be performing, umm, #2...

Well, they DO have a blind digestive tract. :l:

 

[calypsonick]

Thanks! What could that thing in it's "mouth" be ? A colony or an egg mass ? Any clues ?

 

[archman]

Thanks! What could that thing in it's "mouth" be ? A colony or an egg mass ? Any clues ?

I thought you said they were eggs. If they're not eggs, the nearest thing I can think of is a pyrosome (cousin to the salps & doliolids).

 

[Machiavelli]

Might be the mesenterial filaments. :06:

 

[archman]

Might be the mesenterial filaments. :06:

Those are visible around the mouth, true enough. I thought it was the "egg mass" that was the question.

 

[calypsonick]

Dang, I should have taken a supermacro shot of the "eggs" to help with the ID. What animals do egg sheets like this ?

 

[archman]

Molluscs. Yeah, that's vague.