#tunicates

Clavelina ossipandae, the skeleton panda sea tunicate is a species of colonial ascidian, also known as sea tunicates, a group of sessile, marine filter-feeding invertebrates. Just some funky little guys!

First discovered near Kume Island in Japan by local divers, pictures of the animal attracted media attention in 2017. But they weren't given their formal taxonomic description until 2024

For the salp, sex is less of an immutable part of their biology and more like a hot potato. In their aggregate stage, these invertebrates attach together in chains. When an female chain has been fertilized by a male chain, each member will give birth an asexual offspring called an oozooid, which can later release tens of thousands of young which will grow up to aggregate together again. In the meantime, after giving birth the original fertilized aggregate salp becomes male, and will seek out a female to mate with.

Of course!

Like what do you mean this fucken thing is more closely related to humans than to other goopy looking things like jellyfish?

Like cmon

this

and this

Spiral salp colonies