Evening star., 1953-09-14
Sea Anemones Exist
At Greatest Depths
Flower-Like Animals
Found 6 Miles Down
By Thomos R. Henry

BY Ihomos K. Henry
Red-carpeted floors Of the deepest
seas TEEN with weird animals.
They have migrated to last from
tier of cold and darkness where, it
always has been taken for granted,
conditions were such that any kind of
life was impossible. There they live
under pressure as great as seven tons
per square inch-compared to the mere
IS pounds to which all surface ami
mails are subjected. The temperature
is constant at two or three degrees
above freezing. They are six miles be-
low the deepest penetration of light.
There can be no free oxygen in the
water.
Until 1852 this was a completely
unknown world. There had been little
biological exploration deeper than
about 1000 feet. The fantastic jun
giles Of the black abysses were discov-
cred by biologists attached to the
Danish navy frigate Galathea which
was on a round -the-world exploring
expedition equipped with deep-sea
dredging apparatus. The greatest
depth from which living things were
obtained was about six-and-a-half
miles, the bottom of the Mindanao
Trench, near the Philippines. This
is one of the deepest spots in the
worlds oceans.
The Galathea'S dredgeS brought up
81 varieties of small sea anemoneS.
These animal-flowers which can walk
on their heads, hunt with poison ar
rows. and survive without food for
more than year are about the hard
lest creatures on the planet. They ex-
ist in a great variety of forms, but
usually are bag-Shaped or cylinder
shaped hollow, sedentary animals
which attach themselves to the sea-
floor by suckerlike disks on their lower
ends.
Can Creep Slowly.
BY means of these same disks they
can creep slowly over the mud. Around
the margin of the upper end, or
mouth" are tentacles which are
shaped like flower petals and are bril-
liantly colored. For this reason the
animals were long considered sea-
bottom flowers.
From the ends of these tentacleS the
sea anemoneS can shoot tiny poison
darts attached to fine threads, by means
of which they are able to paralyZe their
prey until it can be brought within
reach Of the writhing, muscular arms.
Some varieties can stand on their
heads and walk on these tentacles.
They are able to capture rather &C
tive animals, such as small fishes and
Shrimps. A few species live completely
sedentary lives, buried in the mud.
The sea anemone's tenacity of life
under extreme conditions challenges
the Imagination. Certain varieties. it
has been reported, can be immersed in
water hot enough to blister the skin.
or frozen in a mass of ice and again
thawed; or they may be placed in the
exhaust of an air pump without being
killed and they resume all their normal
activities when placed again in favor
able conditions.
Related to NettleS.
They are highly developed members
of the general coelenterate family
which includes sea nettles and jelly
fish. Their closest relatives are the
polyps, builders of the great coral
forests, reefs and islands which arise
from the sea bottoms. The sea ane-
mones, however, do not build up any
internal skeleton, as do the coral or
ganismS, by extracting carbonate OF
lime from the water. Each remains
throughout its life an independent
animal.
They are essentially indeStructible
and immortal. They have retained the
reproduction process of the single
celled amoeba. Sometimes an animal
literally tears itself in two from top
to bottom Each half becomes a COM
plete actinian. Others twist off small
part of the body, which soon becomes
a whole new anemone.
They also can be cut in two trans
versely, and each half becomes COM
plete. If the mouth and tentacles are
amputated, they continue all former
activity, actively capturing prey with
the tentacleS without any realization
that there is no stomach into which
to put the food. The phenomenon is
comparable to that Of mans head
remaining alive and fully active after
decapitation.
Extremely VoraciOuS.
These animals are extremely vora-
cious. When there is food to be had
they are continuous eaters. When
starved, however, q sea anemone starts
eating itself and finally shrinks almost
to invisibility. 1t never. however. loses
its original form. All the actinians ap-
parently are completely two-sided.
Each half is sufficient unto itself.
These actinians are found on sea-
bottoms all over the earth. The we'll
known oneS1are from relatively shallow
water. Migration Of few species to
the abysmal depths doubtless has been
in progress for half billion years or
more with gradual adaptation to
great and greater preSsures.
Greater in absolute numbers. but not
in different species, were those strange
creeping Observation-Disclosures. or
sea cucumbers. These are somewhat
similar to sea anemones in their gen.
eral behavior but belong to somewhat
higher order of life. They look, as the
name suggests, like cucumbers, or like
filled bags of very elastic leather COW
cred with wart-like nodules. Their
mouths are surrounded by writhing
tentacles, with which they are able
to attach themselves to objects. They
live generally in seaweed or mud and
are supposed to seize their prey with
their tentacleS.
They have the power Of elongating
and contracting their forms so that
one time a specimen will look like
a large worm and at another like an
hour glass. They are found in nearly
all sea bottoms and some Of the largest
are luxury foods among the Chinese.