Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • June 28, 2010 5:55 AM

Hmm not the only creature to turn it’s self inside out.

The sea cucumber or “cuke” is an invertibrate that is known to partialy eject its entrails (self evisceration) along with partly digested food as a way of escaping preditors (and possibly ejecting accumulated toxins).

Now one of the fun things about “cukes” is that what people think is their mouth is in fact the other end of the gut. The reason being their gills are actually at their rear end (unlike the majority of vertibrates etc).

Another fun thing is that their external surface (effectivly their carpice) is under neurological control. So like the squid (which can control it’s external colour) the cuke can conciously cange it’s exteria, however it goes one better than the squid the cuke actually controls the physical properties. So it’s carpice can go from a very liquid jelly to a very tough leathery like skin. The advantage of this is that they can pour them selves into a crack in the rock or reef and then harden their outer layer so that they cannot be easily removed.

Oh and they have one more defensive measure, they have tubes inside their rear ends that contain a soap like substance. They can under extream stress expell these and in the process evacuate their contents into the water.

This is known by some as “The Cuke Nuke” as it can kill most other occupants of an aquarium.

Oh and they have something else in common with squid, you can find recipies to cook them…