Daishi Naruse, Japan
Info
The fire rollers Pyrostremma are a genus of salps (Thaliacea) from the subphylum of tunicates (Tunicata) and they can become very large / long.
To grasp the dimensions of Pyrostremma spinosum, we recommend clicking on the biodiversity explorer page, where a diver "rides" on a giant salp:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/mm/tunicates/pyrostremma_spinosum.htm
This fire whale almost reaches the length of the largest mammal in the oceans, the blue whale, which can reach up to 33 meters!
The body of the tunicate Pyrostremma spinosum is mostly barrel-shaped with inlet and outlet openings at the ends of the body, with the gill gut occupying the main part of the body. The colony maintains its body shape by the combined filtering of water and plankton from the outside in so that the tube retains its cylindrical shape.
The outer surface of the shell is covered with spiky pyramids of fairly solid jelly, but the colony is also very fragile when taken out of the water.
The giant fire roller is not a single animal, but consists of several thousand individual animals (zooids).
In order to reach such a gigantic length, the salp is dependent on regions with a lot of phytoplankton.
While algal blooms can lethally poison crabs, anchovies, seals and sea lions, the algae sometimes also cause a fireworm bloom, which can lead to large numbers of salps, see the mass occurrence off the west coast of the USA.
The outer surface of the shell is covered with spiky pyramids of fairly solid jelly, however the colony is also very fragile when taken out of the water.
Pyrostremma spinosum has two siphons, an inflow siphon and an outflow siphon.
In addition to the immense size of the fire roller, it is also interesting because of a special characteristic: they are one of the causes of the sea glow.
Their bioluminescence is caused by bacteria of the genus Photobacterium, which live symbiotically in the cells of the fire rollers; the name "fire roller" comes from their ability to glow.
Synonyms:
Propyrosoma spinosum (Herdman, 1888)
Pyrosoma (Pyrostremma) spinosum Herdman, 1888
Pyrosoma excelsior Perrier, 1886
Pyrosoma sedentarum Sebastian, 1971
Pyrosoma spinosum Herdman, 1888
To grasp the dimensions of Pyrostremma spinosum, we recommend clicking on the biodiversity explorer page, where a diver "rides" on a giant salp:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/mm/tunicates/pyrostremma_spinosum.htm
This fire whale almost reaches the length of the largest mammal in the oceans, the blue whale, which can reach up to 33 meters!
The body of the tunicate Pyrostremma spinosum is mostly barrel-shaped with inlet and outlet openings at the ends of the body, with the gill gut occupying the main part of the body. The colony maintains its body shape by the combined filtering of water and plankton from the outside in so that the tube retains its cylindrical shape.
The outer surface of the shell is covered with spiky pyramids of fairly solid jelly, but the colony is also very fragile when taken out of the water.
The giant fire roller is not a single animal, but consists of several thousand individual animals (zooids).
In order to reach such a gigantic length, the salp is dependent on regions with a lot of phytoplankton.
While algal blooms can lethally poison crabs, anchovies, seals and sea lions, the algae sometimes also cause a fireworm bloom, which can lead to large numbers of salps, see the mass occurrence off the west coast of the USA.
The outer surface of the shell is covered with spiky pyramids of fairly solid jelly, however the colony is also very fragile when taken out of the water.
Pyrostremma spinosum has two siphons, an inflow siphon and an outflow siphon.
In addition to the immense size of the fire roller, it is also interesting because of a special characteristic: they are one of the causes of the sea glow.
Their bioluminescence is caused by bacteria of the genus Photobacterium, which live symbiotically in the cells of the fire rollers; the name "fire roller" comes from their ability to glow.
Synonyms:
Propyrosoma spinosum (Herdman, 1888)
Pyrosoma (Pyrostremma) spinosum Herdman, 1888
Pyrosoma excelsior Perrier, 1886
Pyrosoma sedentarum Sebastian, 1971
Pyrosoma spinosum Herdman, 1888
