Fish and Their Fabulous Neighbors 



SEA ANEMONES-ANIMALS OR PLANTS? 



These anemones are animals, though they look more like plants; their "petals" 

 are really tentacles encircling an odd sort of mouth. There are about one thousand 

 different kinds of sea anemones, some having as many as ninety-six tentacles, some 

 equipped for stinging. If menaced, these queer creatures contract into a jelly-like 

 mass. They have no skeletons, and are classed as polyps. 



The fact is that the term "shellfish," though constantly used, 

 is incorrect; the proper name for these animals is "mollusks." 

 Every kind of mollusk there are something like eighty thousand 

 species! has a soft body enveloped in a mantle which in most 

 cases manufactures or secretes a hard shell. There are two siphons 

 in the mantle; one of them brings water to the animal, the other 

 carries the water away after it has passed through the gills. 



The mollusk's shell is sometimes described as a skeleton a 

 skeleton without a backbone. Instead of being an internal struc- 

 ture, the skeleton is carried on the outside of the body. 



