AID FROM ANEMONES
The flower-like anemones you'll see in a beautiful aquarium are no shrinking violets—they’re deadly predators. Without the ability to see or swim, they rely on their poisonous tentacles to snare prey.
But what exactly are anemones?
A close relative of coral and jellyfish, anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea bottom or on coral reefs waiting for fish to pass close enough to get ensnared in their venom-filled tentacles.
Their bodies are composed of an adhesive pedal disc, or foot, a cylindrical body, and an array of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. The tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. The helpless prey is then guided into the mouth by the tentacles.
Venoms from various species are currently being studied for potential uses to treat:
cancer- more about this here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23989939
obesity - more about this here:
http://news.uci.edu/press-releases/uci-researchers-find-synthetic-compound-effective-in-anti-obesity-study/
and multiple sclerosis - more about this here:
http://scienceillustrated.com.au/blog/medicine/sea-anemone-venom-as-autoimmune-disease-treatment/
Sources:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/sea-anemone/
http://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/on-exhibit-posts/see-live-spiders-frogs-lizards-and-more-in-the-power-of-poison?utm_source=social-media&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_term=2013-12-07-sat&utm_campaign=poison
Gif via amnhnyc
The entire movement was kinda cute...I guess depends on the specie. Thanks=)
ReplyDeleteThat was a cute movement, of course is not swimming like Ariel, but was still cute ;)
ReplyDeleteIf you refer to the clownfish....no worries, clownfish have a special adaptation (a thick layer of mucus) that protects them from the anemone’s poison.
ReplyDeleteA treatment for MS would be pretty awesome indeed. I hadn't read about that.
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