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We found this strange blob on the beach in Ft. Myers, Florida. What is it, and why is it so special?

Answer:

This is a colony of creatures called tunicates. It is commonly known a Sea Pork, because when it dies, it bleaches a greyish white, and looks like salt pork.

There are several very special things about these creatures. First, tunicates are the only known animals that can produce cellulose, the substance that wood and many other plant materials are made of.

Second, go through a metamorphosis from a free swimming larva to a stationary, colony of adults. As part of the process, they digest the part of their cerebral ganglion that controls movement. Essentially, they digest their brain when they become adults.

Third, although they don't look like it, they are chordates, part of the same phylum as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The swimming larva have a notochord, a stiff rod similar to a backbone.

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