Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Creature 211: Actinoscyphia aurelia

An anemone that looks like a venus fly trap
Description:
Actinoscyphia aurelia is an anemone (try pronouncing that) which is known as the Venus fly trap anemone.  They look a bit like a venus fly trap.


Much like a venus fly trap their fleshy lobes shut in order to trap their prey inside. When they are threatened they release some sort of slime which glows in the dark. I know, that doesn't sound like a particularly great defense to me either. We're not really sure what this is supposed to accomplish,  but there are several hypotheses.



Distribution:
Venus fly trap anemones are found on the ocean floor at depths of over 1000 m in the Atlantic ocean, particularly the gulf of Mexico.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Order: Actiniaria
Family: Actinoscyphiidae
Genus: Actinoscyphia
Species: Actinoscyphia aurelia

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