Species Spotlight - Lightbulb sea squirt (Clavelina lepadiformis)

Species Spotlight - Lightbulb sea squirt (Clavelina lepadiformis)

#speciesspotlight #lightbulb #seasquirt #sea

Lightbulb sea squirts (Clavelina lepadiformis) are a common species of sea squirt that is common in UK seas, and it’s easy to see where their name came from! This species can be identified by its transparent tunic and white lines that cover the tunic that form a ring around the top of the sea squirt. It is a relatively small species, growing up to 2cm in length. Sea squirts are barrel-shaped animals that typically have 2 siphons at the top end, one for taking water in and one for pushing water out. These animals are filter feeders and take in seawater using one siphon, from which they filter out plankton and detritus and removing the wastewater from the other siphon. The lightbulb sea squirt is a colonial sea squirt and is commonly found living on rocks and bounders down to depths of 50m, and it is also often found living in harbors and marinas. This species is one of the most common sea squirt species in the UK and Ireland, only being absent on a few small areas of coastline. This species starts its life as a tadpole-like larvae, but when they attach themselves to a suitable surface, they will actually begin digesting their own brain, tail and spine-like structure called a notochord, before becoming fully grown adults! So, that’s all you need to know about Lightbulb sea squirts. If you enjoyed this video and learned something new, please leave a like and remember to subscribe to learn all about the creatures that inhabit our oceans. Thank you for watching!

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Underwater footage shot on an Olympus TG-6. All footage belongs to me unless stated otherwise.

Music used:

Intro and outro music - Flow
Musician: LiQWYD
URL:   / liqwyd  

Song 1 - Electric Sunrise
Musician: Josh Woodward
URL: https://www.joshwoodward.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Lightbulb sea squirt
00:34 What are Sea squirts?
01:08 What habitats do the live in?
01:36 Where in the UK can you find them?
02:00 Sea squirt life cycle
02:55 End of video