A deep-sea coral's secret weapon against hungry predators—sweeper tentacles.
A bamboo coral’s stony branches contain thousands of tiny polyps living and working together. The individual polyps stretch feathery tentacles into the currents to grasp plankton and other particles of food drifting in the currents.
When predators like nudibranchs and sea stars try to make a meal of a coral’s polyps, the colony can put up a fight. These fleshy sweeper tentacles are loaded with powerful stinging cells that gently sway along the base of this shaggy bamboo coral (Isidella tentaculum) to keep predators from crawling up to eat those precious polyps.
Learn more about these captivating corals on our website.
Commission for @irazel !
Really love how this one came out! Was very fun to design a flying fish/shark inspired dragon 🐉🌊🐟
(not to mention dragons are my favourite!)