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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Pt. 2! Snails and the Starfish that love to eat them!

More escape responses! This time snails (i.e., gastropods) and some "extreme" behavior on their part to get away from predatory starfish!

Japanese Astropecten vs. snails!

The neat snail escape response to the sand star Astropecten begins at 1:30!  Honestly, I've never seen a snail pull the ol' push myself out of the way with my foot maneuver!


Pycnopodia vs. abalone! 

Here's a few videos of abalone escaping the large Pacific Pycnopodia helianthoides!



This one shows that even brief contact with a sunflower star will ellicit the escape response..

Scale Worm Helps Snail! Biting Starfish (Pycnopodia)!  I missed this one I don't know-but COOL!  the good part begins at 0:55



And here's an escape response ellicited by the sea slug Dendronotus!




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2 comments:

  1. tentaculusApril 29, 2012 at 8:23 PM

    Are there any incidents of predatory sea stars successfully captured their escaping quarry?

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChrisMApril 29, 2012 at 9:05 PM

    ha! yes. But most people are predisposed to watching the really extreme responses of the prey escaping as opposed to the starfish doing what comes naturally. :-)

    ReplyDelete