Deep Sea Cucumber: “jettisons internal organs from anus”

Unbelievable – nature’s defense strategies never cease to amaze…

Photo by INDEX-SATAL/NOAA

“A free-swimming sea cucumber moves through the freezing waters of a 10,515-foot (3,205-meter) abyss.

The 1,250 known species of sea cucumbers—named for their distinctive shapes—live on or near deep ocean floors or dwell in the shallows. (Watch a video of a “hairy” sea cucumber.)

When threatened, some sea cucumbers can mutilate their own bodies as a defense mechanism: The animals violently contract their muscles and jettison some of their internal organs out of their anuses.”

From National Geographic New Deep Sea picture gallery