ABSTRACT
There was once a sea anemone, one of those invertebrates with a body like a thin column. It was called Adamsia palliata. Being a plant with a ring of stinging tentacles around his mouth, he could trap food but couldn’t travel far to get it. One day, he met a hermit crab named Pagouros who lived in a castoff mollusk shell for protection. “How about if I live on your back and let you carry me around?” the sea anemone asked Pagouros. “That way, I can get to all the scraps of food I need.” “And?” answered the crab. “Well, this seabed is a dangerous place for crabs,” said the Adamsia, “but, with me on your back, you’d be well-camouflaged.” The crab thought for a second, then agreed: “Deal.” The two species lived together in a mutually beneficial partnership until the day when they got scooped up in a trawler’s net. Resourcefully, Pagouros extricated himself, but only after the trawler had dragged the two way, way off their turf. “Actually, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” said Adamsia after pulling himself together. “And look around you,” Pagouros responded. “We’re in new territory. This is all pretty exciting. Let’s check this place out and, when we get bored, I’ll snap onto a net with one of my claws and we’ll let it carry us somewhere else.” And so the symbiotic pair became world travelers, clinging onto trawlers’ nets but without ever getting snared up. The moral of this story is: if there’s reciprocal advantage in working together, do it, and never pass up the opportunity of a free ride around the world.
