The Science Behind: Sea Pigs

This post is suggested by my brother, who really really wants a sea pig for an unknown reason.





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WTF is it?: A reject a pokemon. Bringer of nightmares. The sea pig is actually a sea cucumber and are related to starfish, sea urchins and sand dollars (phylum Echinoderms). They have 10 tentacles and tube feet.

Am I going to run into one?: No, unless you are a mermaid. Sea pigs live on the abyssal plains, which means thousands of meters deep ocean floor. Also, echinoderms seem to be very successful at severe ocean depths...ie, there are a crapload of sea pigs chillin down there.

What do they do?: Party with Spongebob and eat dirt. The ocean floor is incredibly rich in organic material that sprinkles down from the top. Sea cucumbers comb through the ocean floor sifting through the mud and sand, eating food that has settled in the past 100 days.

Mmmm, dirt.



What does this mean for me?: Really nothing. You are never going to see them and they eat sand. However, you may lie awake a night thinking there are hundreds, if not thousands of these little squishy pink things walking 6000meters deep in the ocean and that evolution could play a cruel trick, give em fins and lungs and in several thousand years they will crawl out of the ocean and eat your descendants brains.


Want to read more?:
Sea Cucumbers: Holothuroidea - Sea Pig (scotoplanes Globosa): Species Accounts
The Echinoblog: Because you demanded it!: The SEA PIG!!