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purple sail
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Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters
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Also called:
By-the-wind Sailor
Related Topics:
Siphonophora
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purple sail
purple sail Purple sails (Velella) stranded on a beach in Corsica.

purple sail

cnidarian
Also known as: Velella, by-the-wind sailor
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History

purple sail, (genus Velella), any of a genus of floating marine animals usually classified in the order Siphonophora (class Hydrozoa) and characterized by a saillike pneumatophore, or gas-filled float. Below the sail hang various structures: tentacles armed with nematocysts, or stinging cells; gonozooids, which have a reproductive function; and a single, central gastrozooid, the feeding and digesting organ.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.