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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic brain Stuff episode

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Speaker 1: from the vault. In today's we discussed the extremely weird

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Speaker 1: world of the sea cucumber living, being so odd that

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Speaker 1: I didn't even title the original episode how does it work?

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Speaker 1: But rather what is it? Hey brain Stuff? Lauren vocal

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Speaker 1: bomb here. You probably have a favorite sea cucumber and

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Speaker 1: don't even know it. There are over one two hundred

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Speaker 1: species in the world's oceans, so many that scientists are

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Speaker 1: even confused about exactly how many there are, so there's

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Speaker 1: probably one you'd like a lot. Some of them are

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Speaker 1: decked out with the colors of your favorite sports team.

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Speaker 1: Others look like somebody crocheted and oversized zucchini out of

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Speaker 1: brown acrylic yarn. Even if you weren't particularly interested in

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Speaker 1: a living sea cucumber, you might want to eat a

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Speaker 1: dead one, or even take one as medicine. But if

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Speaker 1: you don't know, already had to guess, would you bet?

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Speaker 1: A se cucumber is an animal or a vegetable. They

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Speaker 1: tend to come in tube form, like a sweet potato

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Speaker 1: of the sea. They look vegetableish, but they are, in

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Speaker 1: fact animals. The thing where we refer to them as

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Speaker 1: cucumbers doesn't help. But they're a chinoderms, a phylum of

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Speaker 1: marine animals that also includes starfish and sea urchins. Everybody

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Speaker 1: in this hylum has what's called pentameral symmetry. They have

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Speaker 1: five arms arranged around a center point. Of course, the

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Speaker 1: kindest thing you can say about a se cucumber's physique

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Speaker 1: is that it looks like a large hogi bun that

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to eat. But though it more closely

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Speaker 1: resembles a slug than a star, the five rows of

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Speaker 1: tube feet that extend from its mouth to its anus

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Speaker 1: give it the same basic layout as, say, a very

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Speaker 1: elongated sea urchin that fell over on its side. Sea

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Speaker 1: cucumbers have a different approach to reproduction than we do.

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Speaker 1: They are usually born either male or female, but can

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Speaker 1: change from one to the other during their lives. They

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Speaker 1: communicate with each other by releasing hormone into the water,

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Speaker 1: which is very similar to their style of reproduction. They

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Speaker 1: expel their gam meats those are the egg and sperm

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Speaker 1: cells out into the water column and just assume that

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Speaker 1: they'll find each other, just as they assume that their

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Speaker 1: friend got the hormone message that they left. Sea cucumbers

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Speaker 1: eat tiny animals, particles of algae, and general sea junk

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Speaker 1: out of the water using frilly tentacles that between meals

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Speaker 1: they keep hidden in their mouths. What they have in

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Speaker 1: the way of a brain is a ring of nerve

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Speaker 1: cells around their mouth that tells them when it's time

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Speaker 1: to eat, burrow into the sand, walk somewhere, or attack.

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Speaker 1: And even though they look like tube socks filled with

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Speaker 1: modeling clay, a c cucumber's defense mechanism is pretty terrifying.

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Speaker 1: Imagine you're rough housing with a friend or sibling, or

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Speaker 1: maybe taking a martial arts class. I'm willing to bet

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Speaker 1: that your opponent's defense mechanism would not be to shoot

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Speaker 1: out some of his respiratory organs at you out of

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Speaker 1: his rear. But that's what sea cucumber combat looks like.

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Speaker 1: They have the amazing ability to regenerate the organs that

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Speaker 1: they lose this way. Some species spit out sticky string

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Speaker 1: like spiderwebs to trip uper and snare their enemies, while

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Speaker 1: others have a special toxin that kills or stun small

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Speaker 1: animals don't mess with c cucumbers, but we do mess

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Speaker 1: with C cucumbers all the time. Some species are at

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Speaker 1: risk of extinction because in some Asian countries, C cucumbers

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Speaker 1: are the ultimate luxury snack. Some tropical species can go

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Speaker 1: for between ten dollars and six hundred dollars per kilogram

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Speaker 1: dried in mainland China, and one type retails for three

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars per kilo. C cucumbers are also used in

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Speaker 1: Chinese medicine to treat a variety of ailments like muscle aging,

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Speaker 1: compromised immune system, fatigue, and arthritis. Some even suggest they

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Speaker 1: could be used in cancer treatments. The varieties that are

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Speaker 1: used in food or medicine are becoming increasingly rare due

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Speaker 1: to overfishing are over cucumbering. As a result. There are

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Speaker 1: around three hundred and seventy seven species of sea cucumbers

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Speaker 1: on the Red List of Threatened Species put out by

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Speaker 1: the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Seven of these

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Speaker 1: are classified as endangered and nine as vulnerable. But we

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Speaker 1: need sea cucumbers. Not only are they economically important as

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Speaker 1: a seafood, they are essential to ocean ecosystems. They are

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Speaker 1: important filtration systems for watery habitats all over the world.

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Speaker 1: In some places, in the deep ocean, vast herds of

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Speaker 1: c cucumbers roam the ocean floor, gobbling up to tritus

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Speaker 1: that drifted down from above. Plus some species provide vital

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Speaker 1: services for other marine life. The pearl fish, for instance,

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Speaker 1: takes refuge in a c cucumber's anus. Sometimes entire schools

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Speaker 1: of pearlfish can find shelter in the rear end of

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Speaker 1: a single sea cucumber. They usually don't mind much unless

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Speaker 1: they're trying to use their anus to breathe at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, sea cucumbers breathe through their anuses. I forgot

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Speaker 1: to mention that part. Today's episode is based on the

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Speaker 1: article c cucumber, animal or vegetable on how stuffworks dot com,

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Speaker 1: written by Jesslynshields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is

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Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.