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Story: Marine animals without backbones

Sea squirts

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Sea squirts

This green crust is composed of thousands of miniature individual sea squirts, Botrylloides leachi, which live together in a common covering (tunic). This species forms flat gelatinous sheets on stones, shells and even large seaweeds.

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NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

by Mike Page

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How to cite this page

Dennis Gordon and Maggy Wassilieff, Marine animals without backbones – Tunicates: sea squirts, salps and appendicularians, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5867/sea-squirts (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Dennis Gordon and Maggy Wassilieff, published 2 March 2009.