Distribution and Habitat
Trichoplax was first discovered on the walls of a marine aquarium, and is rarely observed in its natural habitat. Trichoplax has been collected, among other places, in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean, off Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, and Papua New Guinea, and on the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia.
Field specimens tend to be found in the coastal tidal zones of tropical and subtropical seas, on such substrates as the trunks and roots of mangroves, shells of molluscs, fragments of stony corals or simply on pieces of rock. One study was able to detect seasonal population fluctuations, the causes of which have not yet been deduced.
Read more about this topic: Trichoplax Adhaerens
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