InverteButts: All About Those Weird Invertebrate Butts

In celebration of #InverteButtWeek on Twitter, this week's episode is all about those butts. And guess what? There are a lot of weirdass butts in the animal kingdom. How and why did we evolve butts?  Scientists still are not exactly sure how anuses evolved. What we do know, though, is that for those animals lucky enough to have an anus, they have been rewarded with the ability to digest food more efficiently. Here are some examples of weird invertebrate butts in this episode. 

Comb Jellies are one of the largest animals to swim using cilia. Comb Jellies probably have one of the weirdest butts, considering they have transient anus that comes and goes as they please. These animals might help explain how anuses evolved to begin with. 

Scorpions, specifically Ananteris scorpions, can literally lose their butts and survive. These scorpions detach their tails to escape predators. However, when they sacrifice their tails they lose not only their stingers but also their ability to poop. Yes, scorpions poop from their tail, and yes, they can live for months after losing their butt.

Sea cucumbers have been described as the earth worms of the ocean. But why are their butts interesting? Did you know they breathe through their butts? Or that they can use their butts as a defense mechanism? Or that they can spit their organs out of their butt? 

Diving Beetles are aquatic insects found in lakes, ponds and streams. These beetles breathe air, cannot “hold” their breath like sea mammals, and they don’t have gills. So how do they spend most of their lives under water? With their butts, kind of. 

Beaded Lacewing are winged soft body insects. These basic bugs will lay their eggs next to a termite mound because termites are their only source of food. Guess how they kill these termites? With deadly farts. 

Bombardier beetles are a group of ground beetles that eat mostly insects. What makes these beetle’s butts interesting is they eject a boiling hot quinonoid spray from their butts to protect themselves. This toxic spray can kill bugs and burn humans. Reminds us of our Dragon episode ...

Listen now to learn more about weird invertebrate butts, and help celebrate butt week. 

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