These animals build palaces out of their own snot

Saturday, June 6, 2020 - 14:10 in Paleontology & Archaeology

A close up view of the giant larvacean, the blue tad-pole-like swoosh in the center, and its snot palace. (MBARI/)Every animal has its own idea of the perfect home. For the giant larvacean, that home is pretty darn weird—and new research shows that their slimy homes are even wackier than we thought. With their bulbous heads and flat tails, these gelatinous invertebrates look like big, ghostly tadpoles. Though they grow to reach the size of a breakfast muffin, they are usually surrounded by self-constructed “snot palaces” as big as 1 meter in length.Now, new insight published Wednesday in Nature shows new structural details hidden in all the goop. Scientists mounted laser technology to remotely-operated submersible vehicles, launching them into the ocean 400 meters down to scan those delicate homes.By digitally reconstructing what they observed, the scientists found giant larvacean snot palaces have two nested structures: an inner house and an...

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