These guys always made me feel uncomfortable. I would collect and eat them, and the remains would run away afterward.
The entire body of a sea urchin is what researchers are now calling an “all-body brain,” with neurons that function as a brain throughout its anatomy.
Submitted 2 months ago by cm0002@infosec.pub to science@mander.xyz
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a69443677/all-brain-creature/
Comments
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 months ago
cm0002@infosec.pub 2 months ago
Er…I…um…what‽
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 months ago
It’s true! I would collect them in a pail from the tidal pools as a child. I would crack them open with whatever I had available and eat them, and the halves would still be running around on the ground after I discarded the rest.
The parts of urchin, the remains, they would skitter around and bunch up in one corner of the yard trying to get away like they didn’t realize they’d been eaten yet even though there was nothing left inside.
spinne@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Most unnerving meal I’ve ever heard of
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Could you do me a favor? Since you know what you’re looking for, will you see if you can find any videos of this? I looked, but either my keywords are bad, or there just aren’t any. I’m assuming it’s bad keywords. That’s absolutely wild.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 months ago
I tried. This isn’t a very good video, but you can kinda see it’s still trying to crawl away after it’s been eaten at several points. I might have had 20 or so in a pile fresh out of the water and they were much more active. I hope this helps.
AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I, for one, would like to see the cafeteria menus in advance so parents can adjust their dinner menus accordingly. I don’t like the idea of my children having two all-body brain meals in one day.
fubarx@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Fedi-urchin
DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 2 months ago
Urchins are like the God-emperor in Dune, understood.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
I suspect that all animal cells think and have experiences. But neural cells are specialized.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 months ago
Depends on your definition of thinking. If by think you mean react to their environment and possibly have some form of chemical based memory, that seems possible. Hell they have to react to the environment to maintain homeostasis. Multicellular organisms are ultimately a kind of colony of unicellular organisms if you get right down to it.
If you mean actual cognition, definitely not. There’s an indisputable difference between reacting to stimulus and considering the cause of the stimulus and the second one needs a neutral network or something like it, it’s simply too complex… Probably.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
The evidence of the mechanism of anesthetics on microtubules preventing consciousness makes me suspect that actual honest to god consciousness is phenomenon that arises from fundamentally intra-cellular, not inter-cellular mechanisms; that no more than a single cell is required to have a form of experience. Which is a potential I hate, but it’s the most consistent model I have.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 2 months ago
This is such a shit magazine. They are not “all brain”, its more like their brain is just scattered evenly throughout their body.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 months ago
its called a nerve net for the most part. they dont have an actual brain per ce. thier nervous system is somewhat more complex than cnidarians.
Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So they are basically an intellect devourer with spines?
Dogyote@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Oh, so just like me.
Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
So, when I see chefs open one up and eat it raw, they’re eating living brains?
Metal.
seanom@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They are eating the roe. So genitals, eggs, and sperm.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Kinky
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 months ago
And it’s delicious with a quail egg dropped on top. Yummo!
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 months ago
mmm… genibrains…