Q 01/05

Sea cucumbers pump seawater in and out through the anus to carry out which vital function?

A) Egg-laying

B) Breathing

C) Swimming

D) Hearing

Answer · why

B) Breathing

Breathing is done by two branching respiratory trees just inside the anus, which draw oxygen from each gulp of seawater before it is squirted back out...

Q 02/05

Which organ does every sea cucumber live its whole life without?

A) A mouth

B) An intestine

C) A brain

D) A skeleton

Answer · why

C) A brain

A brain is absent: the nerves form a ring around the mouth, and a sea cucumber can still move about after that ring has been surgically removed.

Q 03/05

Some sea cucumbers scare off a crab by ejecting which parts of themselves, which later grow back?

A) Internal organs

B) Outer layer of skin

C) Body spines

D) Eye stalks

Answer · why

A) Internal organs

Internal organs such as the gut are thrown out through the anus or a rupture near the mouth, a defence called evisceration. The animal lives off its r...

Q 04/05

Which farm animal names Scotoplanes, the sea cucumbers that walk the deep seabed on stilt-like legs?

A) Cows

B) Goats

C) Sheep

D) Pigs

Answer · why

D) Pigs

Pigs give Scotoplanes the common name sea pigs, and the animals roam the abyssal plain in groups that early collectors counted in the hundreds.

Q 05/05

Which slender, see-through fish is known for living inside the anus of a sea cucumber?

A) Clownfish

B) Pearlfish

C) Pipefish

D) Cleaner wrasse

Answer · why

B) Pearlfish

Pearlfish shelter in the cloaca of a sea cucumber, and a few parasitic species go further and eat the host's gonads from the inside.