Tunicates, a.k.a. Urochordata or urochordates, members of the Tunicata, subphylum of the phylum Chordata developed in the early Cambrian period. One of the things that the tunicate does during its life cycle is digest its cerebral ganglian, or in other words, it eats its own brain. I believe it is also call a sea squirt. Rat snakes are also known to eat themselves or at least try to do so.

 Here are some examples

  polycarpa autura

  tunicate polycarpa

  sea grapes

 botylliodes_violaceus

 rush polycarpa

  

Apparently the trunicate is not alone in the animal species of self-cannibalism or auto-cannibalism or autosarcophagy. How many nail biters are there out there? (That’s really pica not autosarcophagy.) A good many folk eat bits of their own skin or suck a bit of their own blood. But they hardly qualify as full fledged auto-cannibals. Sometimes it is forced upon folk such as in the 16^th century when colonizers forced natives to eat their own testicles. Oh yuch!

I heard about that strange little sea critter on NPR coming back from golfing and it intrigued me, so I had to check it out.

I think there are political implications here but I’ll leave that to your imaginations.