Science

Meet the tiny critter that pollinates seaweed like a bumblebee

It’s one of the only sea creatures known to carry sperm on its body.

by Jennifer Walter
Idotea balthica
© Wilfried Thomas @Station Biologique de Roscoff, CNRS, SU, Roscoff, France

Demitry Skorinoff / 500px/500px/Getty Images

Most plants couldn’t survive without bees, thanks to their ability to pollinate and help stationary organisms reproduce.

But for seaweed, the story is a little different.

Seaweed is not a true plant, but algae. Most species of algae are thought to reproduce asexually or rely on currents in the ocean to spread mature sex cells, known as gametes.

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