Skeleton panda sea squirt

Skeleton panda sea squirt
Colony of Clavelina ossipandae near Kume Island
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Tunicata
Class:	Ascidiacea
Order:	Aplousobranchia
Family:	Clavelinidae
Genus:	Clavelina
Species:	C. ossipandae
Binomial name
Clavelina ossipandae Hasegawa & Kajihara, 2024

Clavelina ossipandae, the skeleton panda sea squirt or skeleton panda ascidian (Japanese: ガイコツパンダホヤ, romanized: gaikotsu-panda-hoya), is a species of colonial ascidian (sea squirt), a group of sessile, marine filter-feeding invertebrates. Originally discovered near Kume Island in Japan by local divers, pictures of the animal attracted attention in the media for its appearance prior to its formal taxonomic description in 2024.

Among sea squirts, Clavelina ossipandae is most recognizable for its white horizontal blood vessels, giving it a skeleton-like appearance, and black frontal dots of unknown function, that have been compared to a panda's eyes and nose. After it was featured on television programs and social media, a crowdfunded expedition sampled specimens of the animal in 2021. The researchers formally described it three years later.

Clavelina ossipandae lives at around 20 metres (66 ft) of depth, anchored to the surface of coral reefs with strong currents. It lives in colonies of one to four transparent individuals or zooids measuring up to 2 centimetres (0.79 in) each. Individuals in a colony are linked through connections called stolons, and originate from a single organism reproducing asexually, although they are also capable of sexual reproduction.