Scotoplanes advances on the vase with long ambulacar feet that lift his body. Despite its nickname “sea pig”, it is a holothurie, a parent of stars and sea urchins. He's looking for organic debris on the bottom.
Large aggregations have been observed near whale carcasses. MBARI teams also found that young royal crabs could travel on these animals. The benefit of this transport for Holothuria is not clearly established.
Repeated observations therefore do not yet make it possible to tell a certain mutual aid between the two species. They show a passenger and a living support, whose relationships still require research. This is precisely what makes the image curious: we see the shared journey, but we do not know quite the conditions of this small arrangement.
What we know
Documented transportation; mutual benefit not demonstrated.
To go to the source
References consulted on 3 October 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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