Pedal disc

The Pedal disc, or basal plate, is the surface opposite to the mouth of the sea anemone. It serves to attach the anemone to the substrate, or hard surface, upon which it lives. It is characterized by a thin, harder plate composed of muscle and skin tissue that expands and produces an adhesive substance during the adhesion process. The pedal disk first appeared around 741 million years ago with the cnidarian faction, with the taxa diversifying 540 million years ago, before the Cambrian era. Anemones are not completely sessile, the pedal disc allows for both attachment and detachment from most substrate, allowing the anemone to react to local phenomena, albeit slowly.

Biological adhesion is not unique to sea anemones or cnidaria. it has been observed across taxa of bivalves, barnacles, starfish, geckos, and frogs.

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