The Big Sting In the sea, a giant anemone clings to a rock. It
looks like a flower. Colorful petals sway in the water. Don’t be fooled. T is is no flower. It’s an invertebrate. Its petals are tentacles that sting. Anemones belong to the phylum Cnidaria.
In English, that name means “stinging nettle.” T is group includes jellyfish and corals, too. Most of these invertebrates have stinging tentacles. T ey also have one opening. T ey use it to eat and to get rid of waste. Some animals in this group stay mostly in
one place. T e anemone clings to a rock with a single foot. As a small fish brushes by, the anemone’s tentacles sting and paralyze it. T e tentacles then push the helpless fish to the anemone’s mouth. Coral polyps grow together in big colonies.
Some form fun shapes. Take a sea pen. It looks like a feather. It’s made up of hundreds of polyps. T ey stretch out tiny tentacles to catch food floating in the water. Others in this group are always on the move.
T e body of a by-the-wind sailor looks like a sail. T e wind blows this jellyfish across the sea. As it driſt s, it catches food in its tentacles.
sea pen
white-spotted anemone
6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER
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