Venus flytrap anemone (Actinoscyphia sp.)

Description: These large anemones look and behave a lot like the land-based Venus flytrap. They are predatory and feed by waiting for animals to bump into the tentacles surrounding their mouths. The stinging cells on their tentacles cling to victims and then the anemone folds into a taco shape trapping the prey and digesting it.

Figure 2: Approximate depth range of Venus flytrap anemone (black box). Slope of seafloor is a generalized representation of the Gulf of Mexico shelf and outer continental shelf.