What we usually notice of a sea anemone is the spirals of swaying tentacles surrounding an oral disc, with a central mouth, which is usually slit-shaped. Though named after the very showy anemone flowers, sea anemones are very much animals, related to jellyfish and corals. (Photo by Rizwan Mithawala)Ī flower blooms in the seas, and also in tidepools along the shores. The phenomenon is aptly called kleptoplasty, for the slugs are using stolen chloroplasts.Ī sea anemone in a tide pool on one of Mumbai’s rocky shores. Experiments on one species have shown that it can go without eating for over nine months. Living off the cellular contents of algae is all right, but many species in the genus Elysia are ‘solar-powered’! They sequester living chloroplasts from the algae they feed on, and use them for photosynthesis themselves. Pictured here is Elysia hirasei, a sacoglossan sea slug, or, simply, a sap-sucking sea slug. These are among the rules that most life forms on Earth live by, except a few. Animals move about, in different ways, seeking out plants, to eat them. With their incredible ability to photosynthesize, they can stand in one place and eat sunlight. These egg capsules, each containing 20-40 eggs, belonging to a species of predatory sea snail from the genus Murex, are abundant on Mumbai’s shores.Įlysia hirasei, a tiny sap-sucking sea slug, in a shallow tidepool on one of Mumbai’s rocky shores. In tide pools, the eggs of some marine animal or other are surely to be found, attached to rocks. They are a perfect example of carcinisation, an evolutionary process wherein a crustacean evolves into a crab-like form from a non-crab-like form.Įgg capsules of a predatory sea snail attached to a wrecked boat on Mumbai’s Chowpatty beach (Photo by Rizwan Mithawala) Living literally under a rock, these flat-bodied crustaceans are not true crabs but related to squat lobsters and hermit crabs (which, too, are not true crabs). Beautiful and fragile, they will shed a limb if attacked, and escape, just like geckos do, leaving the tail behind. (Photo by Rizwan Mithawala)Ī porcelain crab under a rock on one of Mumbai’s shores. Low tide exposes a colony of sea sponges in a tide pool off Mumbai’s Marine Drive. A deeper inspection reveals more: anemones, porcelain crabs, sponges, snail eggs, and if you’re lucky, sea stars! A cursory peek reveals some forms of life: barnacles, a few snails and small fish. From just a few inches to a few feet in depth and diameter, these shallow pools of seawater are found in the intertidal zone – the area of the shore exposed only during low tides. Tide pools are microcosms of the sea, teeming with life. On rocky shores, we walk past them, oblivious. Western Ghats: Improving Large Carnivore Connectivity.Developing an Ecology-based Conservation Strategy for the Indian Pangolin.Riverine Ecosystems and Livelihoods Programme.
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