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Anthopleura elegantissima	“Splitting up is hard to do”
	This fellow tears itself apart

All these are same clone (or they would be ‘fighting’)

Take home –

Clones itself to capture available habitat

“Fights” other clones with specialized weapons (Acrorhagi)

Endosymbiont may be either green or Dinoflagellate algae

See below

Endosymbionts

While I worked this photo up to show the rounded turbercles (called verrucae) which distinguish it from A xanthogrammica --- I now note the green color is not so bright as others on this page --- indicates to me that has the ‘other’ symbiont in high ratio (if not exclusively) – actually 3 sybionts have been found Symbiodinium californium and Symbiodinium muscatinei; LaJeunesse and Trench 2000) and at least one zoochlorella (green cells in the phylum Chlorophyta

Does this fellow look belligerent?

Those white colored bulbs are called acrorhagi --- they are filled with ‘weapons’ called nematocysts – which one source claims = 40T grams of acceleration when ‘exploded’ from launcher
War between clones in Santa Barbara captured these images -- note inflated and then tattered after battle

Here is intra species aggression by similar species from UK

ITIS systematics – Google images

BioOne articles – 8 at time accessed;

--- several on cloning evolution in anemones – stretching (as above) leads cascade cell changes;
Or compared DNA eastern and western Pacific – argues cloning and symbiosis arose several times in Anthopleura

Behind enemy lines – scouts and battles – a ‘popular’ aspect of this anemone

Created by LG on MAY/11/2005

Last updated on Wednesday, October 19, 2005

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“Splitting up is hard to do”

Does this fellow look belligerent?