Armed sea anemone: living mines on the coast of Australia (8 photos)

They paralyze all living things that touch them!





What looks like a ball of intertwined snakes is best left alone!

This "ball of snakes" is so toxic that you can be poisoned by one touch. The memories of the encounter will echo with burning pain for weeks, or even months! Meet the armed sea anemone, or armed anemone. A creature that you shouldn't even poke with a stick, just in case!

The armed sea anemone lives where toxic organisms of our planet should live - in the devil's sandbox called Australia. And why am I not surprised... The animal can be found on sun-warmed beaches and rich reefs in the southeast of the damned continent.



It is better not to ask the Australian Rapunzel to let down her curls!

On land, fleshy tentacles intertwine like a snake near the mouth. It seems as if several dozen reptiles tried to crawl into a single hole at once. But underwater, the anemone's limbs stretch to a solid 50 cm! This is one of the largest anemones in Australia!





The strange thing in the middle is the anemone's mouth. Its diameter reaches 20 cm.

The spreading crown of dozens of shoots comes in all colors and shades - from yellow and red, to brown and black, speckled and striped. As we know, bright colors are warning, and with anemones this works 200%. Its writhing fan hides a whole arsenal of stinging cells. In fact, because of it, the sea anemone was called armed. The only difference is that the stinging cells, instead of lead, stuff the enemy with neurotoxins.



The best behavior in the sea is to behave like in a museum. Look, but under no circumstances touch!

All the tentacles of the sea anemone are lined with stinging cells. They work like a harpoon: when prey touches a sensitive hair, the cell shoots a poisoned thread with an acceleration of up to 40,000 g! At the end of it is a spike. Inside is a neurotoxic poison.



The work of stinging cells. There can be hundreds of thousands of them on one tentacle!

Once inside the body, this type of toxin disrupts the functioning of the nervous system at the cellular level. It blocks sodium channels - the main mechanism of neurons. If you omit a series of rather complex terms of organic chemistry, the result of the injection is extremely deplorable: crustaceans, fish and other small sea creatures are paralyzed instantly. The sea anemone greedily stuffs the frozen bodies into its mouth.



Small organisms, such as crustaceans and fish, die instantly from a horse dose of neurotoxin.

The catch is that the blow of the stinging cells of the armed anemone is so powerful that it penetrates our skin without any problems! One slight touch is enough to feel the full toxic power of the anemone! If the affected area is wider, the neurotoxins will arrange a real whistle-stop of cramps and convulsions in the muscles. You are guaranteed monstrously severe pain that will not go away for weeks. Oh yes, for greater joy, it cannot be muffled or reduced by any painkillers!



I don't understand why no one wants to say hello to me? No matter what hand I extend, everyone turns away!

What does the sea anemone do when it is NOT paralyzing everyone around it? That's right, it reproduces its own kind! The author was unable to find out about the intricacies of the armed sea anemone's personal life; the anemone was ready to defend its secrets in full combat readiness. But these animals have only two ways to continue their race.



When your partner is toxic in the truest sense of the word.

The first is to separate a piece of yourself, which will become a new anemone. The second is to hope for luck and splash whole clouds of biological material into the water in the hope that sperm and eggs will find each other. If a miracle happens, then replenishment will appear in the clouds of plankton - larvae of future anemones. They will flutter on the waves until they grow a mouth and the first tentacles. From this moment on, their life goes downhill, becomes mundane and static. From easy prey, they turn into one of the most toxic inhabitants of the ocean!