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doublejota's avatar

Sea belt

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Description

Another gemellate, distantly related to hive sponges. They are filter fedders. The queen lives anchored to the substrate, while the hundreds of drones are joined together by suction cups, forming a structure similar to a circular ribbon. This belt constantly rotates, so that each drone passes through the interior of the queen and deposits the plankton trapped during the spin. The queen will digest it and transform it into a "nectar" with which will feed the drones.

These soft-bodied organisms can be found on reefs, anchored to rocks.

The queen of the species in the picture is about 2 cm tall.

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Comments3
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wayoutdan's avatar

I had an extremely similar idea once except that I never considered it to be a colonial organism and I never did figure out its embryology. Your idea here makes a lot more sense.