Pineapple sea roller
| Pineapple sea roller | ||||||||||||
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Pineapple sea roller ( Thelenota ananas ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Thelenota pineapple | ||||||||||||
| Hunter , 1833 |
The pineapple sea roller ( Thelenota ananas ) is an echinoderm (Echinodermata) from the class of sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea).
features
Pineapple sea rollers have an elongated body with a square cross-section. They become 70 centimeters long with a maximum diameter of 15 centimeters. The red-brown skin is covered with large, same-colored, orange, gray or purple shimmering, one- to three-pointed papillae. The underside with numerous ambulacral feet is also orange. Pineapple sea rollers do not have Cuvier tubes .
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Distribution and way of life
The animals live in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific , north to Japan and east to the islands of the South Pacific. They live individually on the sand and scree areas between individual coral reefs at depths of 2 to 30 meters. Pineapple sea cakes feed on detritus and other organic matter that they ingest from the ground.
Lizardfish use the sea rollers as a camouflage and hide behind their large bodies for small fish and crustaceans. Man catches animals as a delicacy. They are offered as trepang under the name "Prickly Redfish" .
literature
- Erhardt / Moosleitner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 3: Invertebrates, Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-103-8
Web links
- Thelenota ananas inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Posted by: Conand, C., Gamboa, R. & Purcell, S., 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2014.