Dec 9, 2022
When life throws you an irritating brush attached to a giant mechanical arm, just glow up. ✨
This anemone in the family Hormathiidae is also known as a flytrap anemone. Flytrap anemones may discourage predators by releasing glowing slime when disturbed. Although some scientists have suggested that flytrap anemones eat bits of debris carried on the ocean currents, their body shape suggests that they feed on small animals, such as shrimp, that happen to swim by them.
Learn more about how researchers at MBARI are working to decipher the secret language of light in the ocean’s depths: https://www.mbari.org/bioluminescence/.
