Sea anemones are marine predatory animals. They are related to corals, jellyfish, tube anemones, and hydroids. Unlike jellyfish, sea anemones do not have a medusa stage.
Hydroids are small colonial predators related to jellyfish.
[unidentified feather hydroid]
Tube anemones (cerianthids) look like sea anemones but are not closely related to them. They are solitary and live in tubes into which they can withdraw. They have two whorls of tentacles. The outer set are used for food capture and the inner set for food manipulation and ingestion.
Corallimorphs are marine cnidarians closely related to stony corals.
Zoanthids are cnidarians which incorporate sand and other pieces of materials into their tissue. Their tentacles are all marginal.
Jellyfish are the medusa-phase of certain cnidarians. They are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles armed with stinging cells.
Upside-down jellyfish, Cassiopea sp.
Other anemones
[unidentified]
Hermit crab anemones, Adamsia cf palliata, are usually found growing on a gastropod shell inhabited by a hermit crab.
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Last modified 30 October 2024