God's Bad Joke #2 - Living Rocks
Some people believe that the world was created by an inteligent being and some people think there is no divine plan. In "Gods bad joke" I do not state who is right. I simply point out that if there is a god, he/she must have a strange sense of humor or be completely insane.
1. It's alive!
This unholy thing is called Pyura chilensis and you can find it in coasts of Chile and Peru, but i don't know why would you want to find it. It eats by sucking in water and digesting microorganisms living in water. It looks like someone put intestines of a person inside a rock, because it actually is just a lot of organs inside a shell. I know that you think that this is just a turtle with no arms, legs, head and no tail, but this thing is real.
2. Immovable object.
This may sound ridiculous, but this thing doesn't move. Well... the title of this post is "Living Rocks" so you should see that coming. Somehow, after millions of years of evolution, this thing decided that movement is overrated.
3. Sex? How?
The first thing that came to my mind after I've heard that they can't move was "How do they reproduce?". As it turns out it is hard to find a partner when you sit in one place for your entire life, but luckily every Pyura after reaching maturity turns into a hermaphrodite (an organism that is both male and female) and spreads the eggs and the sperm into the ocean, hoping that they're going to bump into each other producing more rocks.
4. Vanadium?
The blood of this organism is crystal clear and contains 10 million times more vanadium that the water surrounding it. You don't know what is vanadium? Relax, nobody does. It's a metal that people add to steel to make it harder. Why does Pyura contain so much vanadium? Scientists don't know it. Maybe this rocks are building giant robots to take over the world or maybe it's just a hobby.
Thank you for your attention.
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This is amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I'll have to do some research. Is the shell real mineral?
I haven't found information about it. Probably it is made of minerals just like human bones but i do not have anything to back it up with. It's hard to find information about this creature. I made this post as a fun fact, not as a science study, so I'm not an expert on the subject of living sea rocks :P
Did a quick check. It's considered a delicacy in South America and Australia. The outer skin(shell) has stones embedded in it to blend in with it's surroundings. Just some fun facts :-) What is interesting is the High concentration of vanadium (a rare element) found in them. They're checking into possible medicinal potentials.