Orange Sea Pen (Ptilosarcus gurneyi)

The orange sea pen is a filter feeder that lives anchored to the sea floor off the west coast of North America. Resembling a quill in an ink bottle, this organism’s body is really a colony of small cnidarian zooids. Specialized “autozooids” in the feather-like structure are armed to catch and feed on plankton, while siphonozooids are capable of ejecting water so the feather can retract into the base. It emits a short burst of light when it retracts itself to confuse predators.