Ekaterina Bocharova Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences · Evolutionary Developmental Biology
In a previous blog I demonstrated in my anemones one method of sea anemone reproduction, where the anemone pulls itself in half to form a clone of itself. That is method A in the diagram above. I just noticed that I had a tiny anemone next to an adult anemone, which is the result of pedal laceration, method C. ("ped" = "foot") This is where a bit of the foot separates off and that part grows into a whole new animal with tentacles. The whole process can take as little as 2 weeks, before the new anemone can feed on its own. It is always possible that this baby is a result of sexual reproduction, where a male and a female anemone release gametes (sperm and eggs) into the water to fertilize and produce a planaria that settles out on the rocks and grows into a baby. This is less probable because in that case I would expect to see many more babies, and gametes floating around would likely just get sucked into my filter system. (hm - should look in my filter!) Anyway, my initial 3 individuals have divided into 14 total! Three separate little families of all identical creatures. Grow on!
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