Step aside , Nessie – Paul Naylor celebrates some of the strangest creatures of the sea lochs
UKDIVING CRITTERCONFIDENTIAL
A Common Sunstar among wary brittlestars
Spiny-Skinned beasties of Scotland
Step aside , Nessie – Paul Naylor celebrates some of the strangest creatures of the sea lochs
‘ Echinoderm central ’; Pink-spotted Sea cucumber and Common Sunstar
The desire to meet new and different creatures is one of the main driving forces that take us underwater , and I always think that a special aspect is just how downright bizarre some of them are . Having said that , many are roughly equivalent to familiar animals on land . Fish might seem very ‘ different ’ but they are clearly relatives of vertebrates such as mammals and reptiles , with a backbone , head and face .
There are similar equivalents for marine worms , sea snails and crustaceans too of course , the latter resembling enormous insects on steroids . Even sea slugs look a little like their land-lubber brethren , although they are far more glamorous and octopus , while rather ‘ other-worldly ’, have the all-important pair of eyes that helps us engage with them .
The odd ones out are starfish and their brittlestar , sea urchin and sea cucumber relatives . They have radial symmetry for a start , no front and back or left and right . Admittedly , sponges , corals , sea anemones and bryozoans are also like that , but they are largely sedentary and don ’ t move across the seabed , chasing their prey like starfish do ! For me , this means that echinoderms ( their phylum name means ‘ spiny-skinned ’) are the strangest of the creatures we encounter .
20