Monday, October 26, 2009

Alien lips? Strange roots? Floating kid's toy? Mating spiny sea worms?

I'd like to say it's #4 above, but It's actually a slurp-fest. This juvenile California sea cucumber is sucking something yummy off the surface of the water. Its white feeding tentacles, at the far right, are snatching particles with their mucosy tips. One by one the feeding tentacles were pulled into the central mouth and sucked clean of sticky food, much like peanut-butter-covered fingers in a human mouth. The double image was created by the water's reflection of the animal's underside.