montereybayaquarium:Are you sitting down? Get comfy, this one’s a doozy:• These are photos of salps—
montereybayaquarium:Are you sitting down? Get comfy, this one’s a doozy:• These are photos of salps—filter-feeding, gelatinous drifters.• Their scientific name is Thetys vagina.• Vagina salps come in two morphs: solitary ( 1) and chains ( 2)• Solitary salps produce the chains asexually—you can see a rope of clones—the stolon—forming in the salp’s “belly,” each small orb being the gut of one salp in the budding chain.• Chains of the clonal individuals can be tens of feet long. The chain here was about 3 feet long.• The chains reproduce sexually, beginning life as females and producing eggs.• When the female chain has been fertilized by a male chain and the solitary salps produced, the female chain then becomes a male chain and will fertilize younger female chains.• Known as “alternation of generations,” this type of reproductive strategy is thought to help salps explode in numbers when conditions are right.• Salps may be crucial to the carbon cycle and regulating the climate, as their poo pellets sink carbon into the deep sea.• These photos were taken by local photographer Joe Platko along Cannery Row this week. Thanks Joe!FAQ:• We know—supposedly they were named when “vagina” just meant “sheath” and not applied to anatomy yet but idk • “Thetys” refers to a Greek sea goddess. “Tethys” was Titan of fresh water.• They don’t sting! They’re closer to fishes and people than to jellyfish!This has been a public service announcement about the alternation of generations and sequential hermaphroditism in Thetys vagina salps. Thank you for reading. -- source link
#ocean chat#salps#vaginas