Pip was born into a world of endless blue, a shimmering 1 mm speck of potential drifting in the current. Unlike the stationary, colorful "adults" anchored to the reef below, Pip was a , built for a single, desperate mission: to find a home.
The is a tiny, free-swimming larva that represents a fleeting moment of mobility in the life of a sea squirt. Though it measures only about 1 mm and lives for just a few days, it possesses complex features—like a primitive spinal cord (notochord) and a simple brain—that it will eventually digest to become a stationary adult. The Great Descent of Pip ascidian tadpole
A "light-eye" that told him to swim away from the bright surface where predators lurked. Pip was born into a world of endless
A "gravity-sensor" that pulled him toward the safety of the dark seafloor. Though it measures only about 1 mm and
As he flicked his muscular tail, Pip felt the power of his , a flexible rod that made him a relative of the great whales and humans. His tiny brain, a cluster of only 170 neurons, hummed with data from two specialized organs: