Headless Chicken Monster
The headless chicken monster (Enypniastes eximia) is a swimming sea cucumber of the deep ocean, nicknamed for its resemblance to a plucked chicken. It is one of the few sea cucumbers that swims.
The headless chicken monster (Enypniastes eximia) is a swimming sea cucumber of the deep ocean, nicknamed for its resemblance to a plucked chicken. It is one of the few sea cucumbers that swims.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Headless Chicken Monster in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Deuterostomia lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
A Swimming Sea Cucumber
Most sea cucumbers crawl along the bottom, but this one has a veil-like fringe of skin that it flaps to swim up from the seabed. It is translucent and orange-pink and can be bioluminescent.
Feeding on the Deep Floor
It lands on the sediment and shovels in mud with its tentacles, digesting the organic matter. It swims to a new feeding site when the food is gone.
A Popular Nickname
The animal was first described in the 1880s, but its nickname spread after deep-sea video footage was released in 2010. Its biology is poorly known.
Headless Chicken Monster at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Enypniastes eximia |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Echinodermata |
| Class | Holothuroidea |
| Order | Elasipodida |
| Family | Pelagothuriidae |
| Field Guide group | Deuterostomia: Echinodermata (Sea Stars & Allies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Pelagic translucent pink-red echinoderm swimming via an umbrella-like webbed collar of fused feeding tentacles; soft elongated body. |
| Class | Holothuroidea |
| Habitat | Deep sea worldwide |
See Also
- Sea Pig — another deep-sea sea cucumber
- Orange-footed Sea Cucumber — a shallow-water sea cucumber