Sea Cucumbers Shoot Their Guts at Enemies

A brown mass moves slowly among the coral and sands at the ocean's bottom, keeping an eye out for any potential predators despite the fact that it has no eyes. However, the slow sea cucumber has a defense mechanism that costs a lot of energy when problems do arise. This ocean pickle has a fairly nasty way of remaining mostly off the table thanks to a trait specific to its phylum. But on sometimes, you simply need to triumph pyrrhically, as the sea cucumber did in this instance of Life, Death, and Taxonomy.

The best offensive is occasionally the best defense. And the best crime is to be abhorrently repulsive. Here comes the sea cucumber with its gut regurgitation mode of defense, which, if nothing else, traumatizes would-be attackers psychologically.

Sea cucumbers are categorized as echinoderms even though some species do somewhat resemble cucumbers. They are invertebrates, therefore unlike shellfish, worms, jellyfish, and other organisms, they don't have a spinal column. They do, however, possess a digestive system, which they can forcefully eject towards predators in times of threat.

A shark can clean its stomach by spitting it out, then it can re-swallow it, however a sea cucumber cannot do this. Once those intestines are exposed, they remain exposed. The animal can then just produce new ones. Although it takes a few weeks, it is preferable to being devoured.