Gold-mouth sea squirt

Polycarpa aurata · The gold-mouth sea squirt is a tunicate with an urn-shaped body that lives in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean.

Also called Ox heart ascidian, Ink-spot sea squirt.

Gold-mouth sea squirt
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
Gold-mouth sea squirt
Photo: Nhobgood Nick Hobgood, CC BY-SA 3.0
Gold-mouth sea squirt
Photo: Paul Kli, CC BY-SA 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAscidiacea
OrderStolidobranchia
FamilyStyelidae
GenusPolycarpa
SpeciesPolycarpa aurata

Where it lives

Tropical eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans, Philippines to northern Australia, 5-50 m deep.

Fun facts

  • This sea squirt has a hollow, urn-shaped body with two siphons, one on top and one on the side.
  • Its outside is white with purple and orange patches and purple lines, while the inside is yellow or orange.
  • It can grow anywhere from 5 to 15 cm tall.
  • It feeds by drawing water in through the top siphon and filtering out tiny food like phytoplankton and bacteria.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).