Pyura (Pyura chilensis) - This edible marine animal is a species of the ascidian class (Latin ascidiacea), a distant relative of vertebrates. Pyura has a unique characteristic: their blood contains vanadium, which they absorb from seawater. In Japan, such ascidians are bred on underwater plantations, then they are collected and burned, receiving ash, in which vanadium is contained in a higher concentration than in the ore of some deposits.
These organisms inhabit rocky areas of the coastline that are flooded with seawater at high tide and drained at low tide. Large colonies are found off the coast of Chile and Peru. These animals have a hard shell that looks like a natural stone structure. This animal breathes and feeds through a pair of so-called siphons. Using these siphons, the animal filters sea water rich in organic matter. Pyura is a chordate animal, that is, they have a rod-like support in the back (chord) from which the vertebrates subsequently develop the spine.
Pyura is heavily caught off the Chilean coast, but so far no overfishing effect has been observed, probably due to their high growth rates.
Pyura meat with a strong characteristic aroma of iodine, and the taste really corresponds to the metal vanadium, animals accumulate it by filtering the sea water. The concentration of vanadium in the blood of P. chilensis and in its other membranes can be up to 10 million times higher than in the surrounding seawater. It is a food product with the highest metal content.
Many diving enthusiasts hunt this edible marine animal, but the Chilean waters (Pacific Ocean) are fraught with dangers.
From a gastronomic point of view, Pyura chilensis meat is aromatic and very tasty, it is eaten both raw and boiled. Usually, it is cut into small pieces, chopped onion, cilantro and lemon are added. Boiled ones are a part of many dishes, for example "rice with sliced Piure".
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Pyura chilensis is usually cut with a saw or ax.
The most incredible and original animals live on the ocean floor. They can safely include a whole class of special bag-like animals - ascidians (Latin Ascidiacea) - these are primitive larva-chordates (Urochordata) or tunicates.
All over the world, the subtype Gang urochordate has about 1250 species of all kinds of ascidians. And they have the most exotic names: chamomile, sea syringe, pineapple - so named for the shape of the body, reminiscent of an ordinary pineapple, glass lamps, sea eggplant, and others. And in the coastal regions of Shandong province (China), ascidians are found, which are called sea breasts.
If you touch some ascidians with your fingers, then in response a powerful pressure of water will follow from all the holes, as if injections are made from a syringe, it is for this unusual ability that they got their name - the sea syringe. After a powerful release of water, ascidians still continue to be in an excited state, while their bodies become soft, lose their shape and resemble rags dangling due to the current.
Some of these primitive animals can be encountered in the intertidal zone of oceans and seas, and some will have to be reached to the very depths. Adults are sedentary, firmly attached to the surface of the seabed, stones, shells, and they take root on the bottoms of ships or on the shells and backs of other marine life, for example, crabs. Moreover, ascidians can settle both individually and in whole groups.
The main food for ascidians, in addition to animal and plant waste, which they extract from the water suspension, is plankton. The body of animals is covered with a shell (mantle), which has a leathery or cartilaginous consistency. With this mantle, the ascidians are in contact with various surfaces.
At the ends of the mantle there are a pair of fringed openings, and the ascidians themselves most often stretch out in the form of tubes of different configurations depending on the species. One hole serves to suck in water, from which the ascidians simultaneously extract food and respiration, the other outlet serves to remove waste materials. Inside the shell is the body of the ascidians, consisting of a thin-skinned gill sac, pierced with vessels and numerous crevices. The entire inner surface is covered with cilia.
Water enters through one hole, and fills the gill sac, then through the cracks it enters the space (cloaca), which, as a communicating vessel, has an outlet to another opening - the intestinal canal located below the gill sac. The curling gut also opens in the cloaca. The ascidians also have a heart located behind the intestine.
All ascidians are hermaphrodites, but eggs dropped directly into the water receive collective fertilization. The eggs are hatched through the cloaca, and the embryos undergo metamorphosis in the water. First, the hatched larvae set off for free swimming until they find a place to settle for the rest of their lives.
Newborn ascidians, like tadpoles, have eyes and a bladder that contains something like a nascent brain. But this brain in an adult does not develop, but disappears and in its place only a node of nerve endings (ganglion) remains. In addition, the larva has a well-developed tail, which allows them to change direction of movement. Nevertheless, after several hours, the front end of the body gradually undergoes changes, and, having fixed on some object, finally turns into an adult, and the tail gradually decreases and completely disappears.