Impurest's Guide to Animals #65 - Pyura chilensis

As spring marches on, I bring an eagerly awaited animal, not because of what it is, but what it'll lead too. But before we can get to that, we must mention the Rosy Wolf Snail, which was in last weeks issue. And just an additional note, I won’t cover a dinosaur until I get blood from a stone….oh

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Issue #65 - Pyura chilensis

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Chordata

Class – Ascidiacea

Order – Pleurogona

Family – Pyuridae

Genus – Pyura

Species – chilensis

Related Species - Pyura chilensis is one of over thirty species in the genus Pyura(1)

Range

Blood from a Stone

Pyura chilensis is a tunicate that is found in costal areas of Peru and Chile, often in large colonies. The species, as an adult, is covered in an outer skin that looks like a stone, covered in a few red blotches. Despite looking like its made of stone, the animal is rather fragile, and can be cut open with a knife or crushed under foot, if trodden on. The red protrusions on the surface, are in-fact siphons, and are used for respiration and feeding.

Like the majority of tunicates, Pyura chilensis, is a filter feeder, inhaling sea water through the siphon. The tunicate then creates mucus, which sieves out organic particulates, with the food loaded mucus running down a groove into the intestine. When injured, Pyura chilensis bleeds clear blood (2), which is often loaded with vanadium, with concentrations of up to ten million times more than that found in seawater.

Pyura chilensis is a hermaphrodite as an adult, and pumps out clouds of sperm and eggs, and is able to self fertilize if there are no other individuals nearby. The immature tunicates are tadpole shaped and have a reinforced notochord, which acts as a primitive backbone. After a few months Pyura chilensis, becomes the sedentary adult form, its spinal chord reducing in length to about a centimetre in length.

Five Unusual Chordates

Tunnicates from the Class Larvacea, remains in a neonatal form for its entire life

Some tunicates are eaten, in Korea around 39 tons of the Sea Pineapple (Halocynthia roretzi) are cultivated every year.

Sobera dignoas, unlike many of the other lower chordates, is a predator, feeding on small crustaceans and nematode worms.

While most lower chordates are small, some members create long chains of multiple individuals, that come together to breed.

A two meter long colony of Pyrosoma atlanticum was once found with a penguin trapped inside, after the bird swam inside the colony and drowned (4)

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - Crew, Becky (21 June 2012). "Pyura chilensis: the closest thing to getting blood from a stone”, Scientific American.

3 - Ruppert, Edward E.; Fox, Richard, S.; Barnes, Robert D. (2004). Invertebrate Zoology, 7th edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 940–956

4 - http://deepseanews.com/2013/08/the-60-foot-long-jet-powered-animal-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

Picture References

1 - http://www.iefimerida.gr/sites/default/files/2_34.jpg

2 - http://www.scielo.cl/fbpe/img/rchnat/v79n4/fig02-01.jpg

3 - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/files/2012/06/Pyura_chilensis.jpeg

4 - http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5EQGA_4BZ5s/hqdefault.jpg

Well that’s how to get blood from a stone, which means next week we have a (one off) dinosaur issue (curse you @ostyo ). But until then critic, comment and check out past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

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I get Blood from a Stone

This is one of the wierder ones. I would not have expected blood and flesh to come out if I stepped on this.

@bruxae: Thanks, have some weirder issues coming up soon. And no neither did I when I first stepped on one.

Wow. How cryptic. Just wow...

@dboyrules2011: Yep, and to think it's more closely related to us then insects, snails and worms

@impurestcheese: Damn, this world is a weird place indeed.

@dboyrules2011: Yep, Tunicates are actually vertebrates

@impurestcheese: *mind blown*

@dboyrules2011: Yep if you look at confirmed vertebrate issues such as the Olm or the Snow Leopard you'll see that they share a phylum with Pyura chiliensis

@impurestcheese: Ah, that's cool. Very awesome. =)

@dboyrules2011: Thanks, expect <shudder> dinosaurs next week

@impurestcheese: Anytime. Well, that will be something I'll be expecting. >_>

@dboyrules2011: Frigging dinosaurs ruining everything, and just when I booked my holiday to a certain zoological park in Costa Rica

@impurestcheese: Hehe lol. Dinos always ruin stuff. Always...

@dboyrules2011: They do indeed

@impurestcheese: Hehe. ;)

@dboyrules2011: Yep that should tide over the Frozen fans hates for a while

@impurestcheese: Read up about this yesterday.

Its amazing how expansive the chordates are beyond the fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and amphibians most people think of.

Laflux alt btw.

@balee_dattttt: You know what they say about great minds...and yes the true scope of what makes a chordate is broader than most people think. Also another interesting fact is that the echinoderms are considered the sister phylum to chordata

@terry2012: Cool thanks for the comment, the natural world is full of oddities

Yeah I knew that, they made us go through the animal kindgom in depth during second year of uni :p

@balee_dattttt: Never got the chance at uni, so I self taught it to myself in the field

You are welcome, yeah the world is.

@impurestcheese: Dinosaur, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!

@ostyo: No, you can wait for next week just like everyone else

@terry2012: :-)

I really, really, really, really want this as a pet. O_O

@ms-lola: Pretty easy pet to keep as long as you have a tank and a pump. Plus if you get fed up with it you can eat it. Apparently they taste like bitter road tar crossed with Iodine

I didn't know what a tunicate was until this February. And why wasn't I tagged for this?

@xwraith: That's cool. And you should have been, I can see your name in the callout, perhaps it's more notification bugs but who knows.

@impurestcheese: Either that happened or I missed it.

@xwraith: Maybe, thinking about setting up a PM to specify when I release IGTA issues, might deal with some of these weird notification problems.

@impurestcheese: Yum! :)

@ms-lola: Yep it's all that additional Vanadium that gives it that 'unique' taste

@impurestcheese: PMs seem to be the only thing on CV that always work.

Uhhhhh. Eww

@wildvine: @cgoodness: Not the most prettiest creature I agree