
The Sea’s Weirdest Creatures, Now in ‘Staggering’ Detail - vo2maxer
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/science/ocean-biology-larvaceans-lasers.html
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pvaldes
Yes, Apendicularians are weird.

The real animal in this 3D scanner is the tadpole shaped thing at the center.
The remaininig structure is its home and hunting net. The article is confusing
because it seems to thing that this is part of the soft body, but is just a
temporal enveloppe. The animals can lose or discard it and create a new one if
necessary. They have also a second one that is more external and is like a
spiderweb made of mucus.

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pvaldes
The interesting part in the article is that the entire structure collapse and
starts disintegrating when you try to manipulate it, so it was a very
difficult group to study because your sample melts in front of your eyes.
Scanning the live animal is a good solution for navigating this obstacle.

