is a considerably versatile intertidal sea anemone. Attaching to rocks, stones or other hard substrates, it is usally found near shore but can live in subtidal areas up to 20 m. The beadlet anemone can survive completely submerged in water or completely out of the water, high up on shores. Sometimes it even has to survive covered in sand, due to wind. However, it is always retracted when it is out of the water, looking like a little red blob.
An anemone is a "solitary polyp."has a wide array of color variation, from green to red. The most common hue is rust-red. The beadlet anemone also varies greatly in body size, from 0.01 to 0.84 g dry weight. However, when anemones are in the water their body mass is primarily the amount of water absorbed in the tissue and in the gastrovascular cavity.
The anatomy is most easily divided into three parts: the tentacles, the body column (which houses the gastrovascular cavity, the pharynx, the gonads, and the retractor muscles), and the base (which includes the base foot that binds to a solid surface).
The anemone begins as a planktonic larval stage where it crawls out of its parent and is free in the ocean for a short period of time. After that, it enters the cavity of another sea anemone, male or female, and further develops. Once the juvenile anemone is ready to be "born", the "parent" anemone catapults the new individual through the water where it lands and subsequentially secures itself on solid, solitary substrate. (Banister and Campbell, 1985; Rostron and Rostron, 1978; Shick, 1991)
Although larger sea anemones will emerge victorious in food contests and competitive survival more commonly than small anemones, the aggressive behavior of the tentacles has been shown to be under the control of some of the same neural components as higher life forms (i.e. the have afferent and efferent neural pathways and they use serotonin as a neurotransmitter). Another aspect of (Banister and Campbell, 1985; Shick, 1991)behavior is contraction. These sea anemones spend a good deal of time out of the water or even covered by sand, so they contract to conserve water. have three main defensive behaviors which include: inflation of the body column to reduce damaged areas, detachment off the substrate so they might escape predation, or release of the nematocytes containing toxins.
In Anthozoans, specialized sensory organs are absent and nerves are arranged in nerve nets. Most nerve cells allow impulses to travel in either direction. Hairlike projections on individual cells are mechanoreceptors and possible chemoreceptors. Some Anthozoans show a sensitivity to light. (Brusca and Brusca, 2003)
bivalve mollusks, insects, and isopods. However larger organisms such as gastropods (snails and slugs), bryozoans, and chitons are what provide the largest food mass. When the anemone "senses" the presence of potential prey, it attacks the organism using its nematocysts. The stinging cell is uncoiled and can release toxins into prey. These toxins paralyze the organism, inhibiting its ability to escape. was shown to have the fastest digestion rate of all the species in the Actinia genus. (Kruger and Griffiths, 1996; Kruger and Griffiths, 1997)is known for eating almost anything it can catch. The most abundant food sources for this anemone are:
Anthozoans often provide fish and crustaceans with habitat and food scraps. The fish and crustaceans provide protection from some predators and sediment fouling. (Barnes, 1987)
A study conducted by Hutton and Smith (1996) found that amoebocytes contain antibacterial properties which seem to function differently than other antibiotic properties found in animals. They seem to be able to fight bacterial infections without the use of an enzyme called lysozyme. Lysozymes are found across a wide number of phyla and are what organisms commonly use to fight bacteria. The chemicals produced by the beadlet anemone could possibly be harnessed for use in medicine or conservation (protecting plants against foreign bacteria). (Hutton and Smith, 1996)
Renee Sherman Mulcrone (editor).
David Terrell (author), Southwestern University, Stephanie Fabritius (editor), Southwestern University.
the body of water between Africa, Europe, the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), and the western hemisphere. It is the second largest ocean in the world after the Pacific Ocean.
reproduction that is not sexual; that is, reproduction that does not include recombining the genotypes of two parents
an animal that mainly eats meat
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.
used loosely to describe any group of organisms living together or in close proximity to each other - for example nesting shorebirds that live in large colonies. More specifically refers to a group of organisms in which members act as specialized subunits (a continuous, modular society) - as in clonal organisms.
a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease
animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature
an area where a freshwater river meets the ocean and tidal influences result in fluctuations in salinity.
fertilization takes place outside the female's body
union of egg and spermatozoan
having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.
An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.
the area of shoreline influenced mainly by the tides, between the highest and lowest reaches of the tide. An aquatic habitat.
eats mollusks, members of Phylum Mollusca
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
a form of body symmetry in which the parts of an animal are arranged concentrically around a central oral/aboral axis and more than one imaginary plane through this axis results in halves that are mirror-images of each other. Examples are cnidarians (Phylum Cnidaria, jellyfish, anemones, and corals).
mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water.
non-motile; permanently attached at the base.
Attached to substratum and moving little or not at all. Synapomorphy of the Anthozoa
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
uses touch to communicate
that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).
reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.
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