Walking along the coasts of Chile and Peru, you can find a “living stone” under your feet that looks like it’s bleeding. This strange creature is known to science as Pyura chilensis. At first glance, you might think it looks like a sea urchin, but to most, they look like a bunch of organs stuck in a rock, writes IFLScience.

In fact, it is not a stone at all, but a filter feeder related to ascidians. This find may seem very strange, but local residents even eat these “living stones” for food.. The edible part is the red part, which is hidden among the dark exoskeleton structure, which is a rock-like part.

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Note that the dark exoskeletal structure is characteristic of the subphylum and is known as the tunicine " It is a hardy home that can support thousands of individuals, essentially living in one " These individuals do not have a brain or sense organs, and are also unpretentious neighbors that live in the tidal zones off the coast of Peru and Chile, where they are actively used in local cuisine.

Because of the red hue of their soft tissues, people often think that " Scientists have discovered that the blood of these creatures is not red at all, but is transparent and filled with an element known as vanadium, a silvery-white metal.. Researchers from the Center for Biological Diversity also found that piures can contain 10 million times more vanadium than the seawater in which they live..

For decades, scientists have been trying to find out how and why filter feeders accumulate vanadium in such large quantities, since the metal is toxic to most other animals even in fairly small doses.. However, there is still no answer to this question. It is also unclear whether consuming piuret could have significant health effects..

No less curious is that this element actually has very interesting chemical properties, and therefore has the potential to serve as a carrier of future energy. As a result, this type of filter is of particular interest to chemists around the world..

chilensis is also known for its sexual activity. Born males, they become hermaphrodites at " However, if they are stranded, they can actually reproduce on their own through self-fertilization. Moreover, scientists also discovered that self-fertilized offspring are likely to be just as successful as offspring with two parents. Previously, Focus wrote that an animal with blue blood has been roaming the Earth for 445 million years: it is the most valuable in the world.