Dive dry with dr. Bill #646: Rarity

[wrybosome]

That's really cool. I know in some land animals like Monarchs, they incorporate or concentrate toxins from plant foods and it's easy to see how that could work. But eating, retaining, and deploying live foreign cells like nematocysts is a pretty cool trick if that's what they're doing.

 

[drbill]

That's really cool. I know in some land animals like Monarchs, they incorporate or concentrate toxins from plant foods and it's easy to see how that could work. But eating, retaining, and deploying live foreign cells like nematocysts is a pretty cool trick if that's what they're doing.

Yep, they apparently ingest the nematocysts without triggering them and embed them in their tissue. Some days I wish I could do that (I have heard that sea jellies can be prepared in a tasty manner)