Sea Cucumbers Have Multipurpose Butts
Meet the most versatile butts in the animal kingdom.
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(Primary Literature) The anus as a second mouth: anal suspension feeding by an oral deposit-feeding sea cucumber: http://bit.ly/2ibnzXa
(Primary Literature) Mechanisms involved in pearlfish resistance to holothuroid toxins: http://bit.ly/2ibg4z8
(Primary Literature) When a repellent becomes an attractant: harmful saponins are kairomones attracting the symbiotic Harlequin crab: http://go.nature.com/2ibltGv
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Host, Writer, Editor, Animator
Anna Rothschild
Camera, Sound
Zachary Hoffman
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Original Footage
©WGBH Educational Foundation 2017
GROSS FOOTAGE AND IMAGES
Images of Sea Cucumber Butts
By Klaus M. Stiefel
Graceful pearlfish (Encheliophis gracilis) living inside sea cucumber (Bohadschia argus) on reef, West Papua, Indonesia
Getty Images/BBC Natural History
A common, large sea cucumber (Bohadschia argus) is easy to identify due to its distinctive pattern. This species can extrude sticky defensive threads called cuverian tubules.
Shutterstock/Ethan Daniels
Cloaque Femelle
Wikimedia Commons/Au Domaine des 3 Coqs
Swimming Crab - Lissocarcinus Orbicularis on Sea Cucumber
Wikimedia Commons/Prilfish
Lissocarcinus orbicularis LandaaGiraavaru
Wikimedia Commons/MDC Seamarc
Pseudocolochirus axiologus
Wikimedia Commons/Marrabbio2
Pearsonothuria graeffei bouche
Wikimedia Commons/Frédéric Ducarme
GROSS SFX
Cockroaches
Freesound/StateAardvark
(used with permission from author)
Squeak Pack/squeak_10
Freesound/Corsica_S
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