Talk:Tunicate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tunicate is within the scope of WikiProject Animals, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to animals and zoology. For more information, visit the project page.

Animals Portal

Start

This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.

High

This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

WikiProject Animals To-do:

1 Myth
2 Ahh!
3 Biologists' in-joke
4 Regeneration
5 Sea squirt into Ascidiacea?
6 Removed links

[edit] Myth

I don't know if anyone has heard of this myth, but it might be worth including. I'm not sure I could do it and keep in tone with the article though. If no-one else has a go in a few days I might give it a shot. - FrancisTyers 18:14, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ahh!

Okay, what I'm about to say may make me sound like an idiot, but I'm okay with that. Last night I was watching animal planet because I couldn't go to sleep, and it said something about a fish that eats its own brain and turns into a plant, and I was like, 'whoa!'. So today I looked it up and found this article, but I seriously can't read it. I'm sorry, but it feels like you have to get a master's degree in science before you can read this article, so-- don't do this if it's really as stupid as it sounds-- maybe there could be a section that explains it in a nutshell, with normal people words. I obviously couldn't make it since I have know idea what this thing is talking about, but if someone would, it'd be nice. Sorry, I promise I'm not a valley girl!

I can assure you such a thing is impossible. Plants and fish, they're so different. And as soon as the fish gets its brain into its mouth to 'eat it' it will die and not finish the job, not even start it. So I'm afraid that what you saw must have been misinterpretted. Also,I think you mean when a fish dies a plant grows out of it, since dead animals make floor/sea floor 'fertile' I guess. Maybe something from its brain is eaten, like a parasite?

He is right (first guy) tunicates are closely related to fish, and also digest the ganglion that is present in the tunicates larval stage. In a sense it "eats its brain". Also for the vanadium concentrations in tunicates, I beleive I have the answer. Tunicates use it as a defensive secretion on predators, it is a poison of sorts. More research could be put into this, but here are the beginnings.

[edit] Biologists' in-joke

I'm not really sure if this is appropriate to the article, but I felt the need to mention it. The tunicate is the subject of an in-joke among biologists, namely that its act of "settling down and eating its own brain" is akin to a professor getting tenure. --FOo 23:27, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Regeneration

"Our closest invertebrate relative, the humble sea squirt, can regenerate its entire body from just tiny blood vessel fragments, scientists now report.

The entire regeneration process, which in part resembles the early stages of embryonic development, can produce an adult sea squirt in as little as a week."

From http://www.livescience.com Full article here: http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070305_blood_regeneration.html

Not having any background in the natural sciences, I have no idea how to properly include this information in the article. I hope someone can do this soon, as it seems pretty important.

24.46.61.185 23:48, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sea squirt into Ascidiacea?

Sea squirt currently redirects here, but it's also given as a synonym for Ascidiacea, and in my non-biologist opinion it would seem likelier that people searching for sea squirts are looking for the edible ones (all Ascidiacea spp) rather than other tunicates. Any objections to changing the redirect?

And that "sea pork" mention/reference should also be moved into Ascidiacea. Jpatokal (talk) 17:47, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Going once... going twice... Jpatokal (talk) 11:12, 28 January 2008 (UTC)