Ever
been so scared you thought you were going to throw up? Well, that would be something you have in
common with a sea cucumber! When a sea
cucumber is scared or stressed it literally throws its guts up! This process is known as evisceration and is
used as a defense mechanism. When
threatened by a predator, the sea cucumber will expel its intestines in an
attempt to distract the predators. The
predators turn their attention to the internal organs and feast on them while
the sea cucumber escapes!
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| Sea Cucumber Anatomy:
What
is often seen as a result of evisceration is the expulsion of many of the organs
depicted in this picture above including the gonads, respiratory tree, circulatory
system and intestines.
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Thereare two forms of evisceration: In the
first the cloaca ruptures and the internal organs are expelled. In the second form the entire anterior end of
the sea cucumber’s body ruptures and the organs are expelled. But how can an animal rupture its own tissue
on a whim? The answer lies in the sea
cucumber’s unique connective tissue. Sea
cucumbers have a huge amount of this connective tissue in the dermal part of
their body wall. Within this tissue is a
collagen compound that can transform from one state to another. Collagen is a fibrous protein, and in sea
cucumbers the fibers are discontinuous which allows them to slide past one
another. Controlled by the organism’s
nervous system, in one state the collaged is stiff and non-elastic which
provides strong support. In the opposite
state, the collagen is soft and fluid like allowing the sea cucumber to be
flexible and squeeze through tiny cracks.
What do you do with half a sea cucumber?
If a sea cucumber ruptures half its body in a last ditch effect to
survive how can it survive with only half its body? Well, luckily sea cucumbers
belong to the phylum Echinodermata which have remarkable powers of
regeneration. Studies have shown that nerve and organ regeneration completes in
3-5 weeks after evisceration. Sea cucumbers can be thought of the oddest superhero
with the strangest super powers: the ability to lose part of its body and grow
it right back!
Video graphic Evidence!
This is quite intriguing. My thoughts are though, what does it do during that 3-5 week period of regeneration with out any internal organs?? How on earth does it function or survive?
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