Name: Sea Pig
Scientific Name: Scotoplanes sp.
Conservation status: Unknown but threatened by deep sea trawling
Location: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans
Habitat: Deep sea >1000m
Diet: detritus and scavenged corpses
Additional information: Sea pigs have a very sensitive sense of smell that they use to locate food. The appendages, including those coming from the animal's back, are legs. Sea pigs are echinoderms, related to starfish and sea urchins, and are a type of sea cucumber. These animals have been cited as a possible source for figuring out the life style of the fossil Hallucigenia from the Burgess Shale deposits.
Resources:
Encyclopedia of Life Entry
Facts from WIRED Magazine
From Echinoblog
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