Windowpane

Windowpane

Scophthalmus aquosus

Size:
to 18"
usually much smaller

Habitat:
Soft sandy bottoms,
in depths from water's edge to 150 ft.

Description:
This is a left-eyed flounder. Identifying characteristics are the nearly circular body shape and the free rays of the dorsal fin, which form a frill near the eye. The Windowpane is common but very thin and too small to eat. It is the sole new-world representative of the turbot family, which is commercially important in Europe.

Windowpane
Herb Segars Photography

Sea Squirts

Molgula manhattensis ( right )
Styela Partita
( left )

Sea Squirts are found attached intertidally to subtidally. They show an extraordinary tolerance for brackish and polluted water, which makes them highly survivable in urban areas. Sea Squirts, usually about an inch in diameter, are capable of ejecting a stream of water when agitated, hence the name. Usually found in groups of several animals. See also: Horned Salp.

Tunicates are much more advanced in the evolutionary scheme of things than anemones, having, for example, a circulatory system. The larvae actually even have several features in common with vertebrates, including the precursor of a spinal cord, but these are lost in the sac-like sessile adults.