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Digestion in sea anemones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

J. A. C. Nicol
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory

Extract

A sea anemone, normally a passive-looking animal, reacts to suitable food-stuffs by a series of fairly complicated activities. When its tentacles encounter solid food there is, first of all, a discharge of cnidae, which poison living prey and adhere to the food mass. These cnidae are independent effectors, responding directly to external excitation (Pantin, 1942). Next, the tentacles clasp the food and bend towards the mouth; they push the food into the mouth, and the pharynx draws it down into the coelenteric cavity where it is digested (Pantin & Pantin, 1943).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1959

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