Everyone has seen a rock at least once but have you ever imagined it could be alive. Well the scientist who discover Pyura chilensis defiantly did not.

P. chilensis  belongs to the Ascidiacea class and the Tunicata subphylum. It is a non-moving filter feeder which is the same as the sponge. It attaches its self to a hard surface to stay there to survive. It is born male but later becomes co-sexual, it can reproduce a sexually or via cross-fertilization.

“In 2005, biologists Patricio H. Manríquez from the Universidad Austral de Chile and Juan Carlos Castilla from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile published a paper in the Marine Ecology Progress Series revealing for the first time the particulars of this creature’s reproductive habits (They also use the verb ‘selfing’ often and with glorious earnestness).”

These animals when cut in half look like they are filled with organs, but there blood is actually clear. These animals are actually edible in Chile, the locals eat them raw or cooked with salad and rice.

All in all this rare and newly discovered animal is a wonder to the science world. Scientist are baffled by it just as they were with the sponge.