General Description

Soft, thick, worm-like sea cucumber; uniform black with translucent body wall; 10 pelato-digitate tentacles with ~8 (3-4 pairs of) digits distally; no tube feet; body wall ossicles 6-spoked wheels with non-continuous teeth grouped in a band along all mid-interradii, S-shaped hooks (scattered) with minute spinelets; up to 8 cm long.

Biology

The body wall is thought to facilitate gas exchange as these sea cucumbers do not have the complex respiratory trees of other groups. Its body wall ossicles (wheels and hooks) are comparatively large for this genus. Rowedota shepherdi is a benthic deposit feeder and detritivore, using its hand-like tentacles to feed on dead organic matter which has settled on the seafloor. Rowedota shepherdi is found in South Australia and Victoria in sand and other sediment in seagrass beds, or among algal epiphytes on seagrass. It is considered a vulnerable species, with its current conservation status listed as 'critically endangered' under Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

Distribution

South Australia and in Victoria at Corner Inlet and Nooramunga (with break in its distribution from eastern Victoria to South Australia).

Habitat

Seagrass meadows and soft substrates, among algal epiphytes on seagrass, to depth of at least 2 m.

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