Pyura Chilensis - The Living Rock

This bizarre creature looks like a rock, can breed ITSELF, and the inside is considered a delicacy in Chile

They live off the coast on Peru and Chile.
It looks like a rock covered in molluscs.
It can breed with itself, developing organs from male to female some time after birth.
Their blood contains the metal vanadium.


Lurking in the bottom of the sea is the sea creature. It´s blending so good into the environment that´ll be an achievement itself to find it. Cause of the long developed look, benefited to hide from predators - the camouflage of a rock.

But IF you were lucky to accidentally bump into this natural looking rock, it will expose a mass of blood-red hermaphrodite creatures, witch is also known as a delicacy in the nearby Central American countries.

The look is also known as Pyura Chiliensis and belongs to the sac-like marine life, also known as sea squirts.

´Tunic´

Because it is covered in a layer - or ´tunic´ of other animal cellulose called tunicin - this creature in known as a tunicate. While playing it´s character, who would have known it had a mass of organs? 

This creature in surviving underwater, doing what all ´filter feeder´does - inhales seawater, removes and feeds on the algae and micro organs living in the water, before exhaling the filtered water.

Breeding

How this weird ass stone reproduce is rather unusual. Its reproductive skill in something don't see everywhere, being born as a male and changing its gender when getting in puberty. When the breeding season comes, the creature releases its female eggs, and the males sperm, at the same time.

Vanadium
On land, we use vanadium to make steel alloys. The same metal our stone makes, and the concentration of vanadium produced is around ten million times the amount found in the surrounding seawater, and researcher are unsure on what the function this element has in this creatures.

The stone is one of the main food source for aquatic species such as the Chilean abalone, but it is also fished commercially and served in Chilean restaurants.

The siphoned are pulled from the tunic after its been prepared with a knife or handsaw. The flesh can be eaten raw, or cooked, and it can be canned or sold as strips.

Cause in the high amount of Vanadium and this element´s toxicity, the  are concerns about butting your teeth into this pile of rock.