Mangrove Tunicate

About this species

Ecteinascidia turbinata, commonly known as the mangrove tunicate, is a species of tunicate in the family Perophoridae. It was described to science in 1880 by William Abbott Herdman. Two cancer drugs can be formulated from this species, trabectedin and lurbinectedin. Both drugs were produced by PharmaMar.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Ecteinascidia turbinata”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 15 records
February: 32 records
March: 28 records
April: 44 records
May: 47 records
June: 65 records
July: 61 records
August: 134 records
September: 43 records
October: 37 records
November: 38 records
December: 15 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–13 m · Deepest record: 40 m

0–10 m: 42 records
10–20 m: 6 records
20–30 m: 1 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 16–28 °C

16–18 °C: 1 records
18–20 °C: 9 records
20–22 °C: 0 records
22–24 °C: 16 records
24–26 °C: 0 records
26–28 °C: 86 records

Photos

(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tom Kennedy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Alison Northup, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Cristian I. Ortega Ramos, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Kristof Zyskowski, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Mangrove Tunicate

Names in 2 more languages

Spanish: Tunicado del manglar
French: Ascidie de mangrove, Ascidie orange

Other scientific names: Ecteinascidia moorei

Similar species

Ecteinascidia conklini
Blue bell sea squirt
Perophora namei

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
264 open-data records from 1884 to 2024.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.