Sea anemones
Sea anemones are a group of water-dwelling, predatory animals of the order Actiniaria; they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flower. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Zoantharia. Anthozoa often have large polyps that allow for digestion of larger prey and also lack a medusa stage. As cnidarians, sea anemones are closely related to corals, jellyfish, tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra.
A sea anemone is a polyp attached at the bottom to the surface beneath it by an adhesive foot, called a basal disc, with a column shaped body ending in an oral disc. Most are from 1.8 to 3 centimetres in diameter, but anemones as small as 4 millimetres or as large as nearly 2 metres are known. They can have anywhere from a few tens of tentacles to a few hundred tentacles. A few species are pelagic, and are not attached to the bottom; instead they have a gas chamber within the pedal disc, allowing them to float upside down in the water.
Unlike other cnidarians, anemones (and other anthozoans) entirely lack the free-swimming medusa stage of the life cycle; the polyp produces eggs and sperm, and the fertilized egg develops into a planula that develops directly into another polyp.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anemone - 10.11.2008
Mud Rose
This Mud Rose looks exotic and yet it also lives in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.