The Green Slug: Part Animal, Part Plant

Recent findings suggest that the Green Slug, Elysia chlorotica, is the first animal known to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll. It appears the slugs steal the ability to do so from the algae they ingest, allowing them to carry out photosynthesis. Using photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy, the slugs have lived for aquariums for months without food - only needing 12 hours of light a day to survive. Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa, presented his findings last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle.


Photo Credit: Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez


Source and full story here:
FOXNews.com - Half-Plant, Half-Animal ... Really

 

What a cool critter!

Any idea how big something like that gets? Nature never ceases to amaze me with how creatures simply adapt to what they have to work with.

nice post.

 

I almost bought one at my LFS a month or so ago. They were calling it a lettuce sluge I think.

 

Nice article. That one is normally about an inch long, but some other Elysia species (which are also photosynthetic, by the way) may reach five or six inches.

Cheers,



Don

 

o man thats awesome i want one ... im guessing they are better off in the ocean though

 

now we need one that eats GHA haha

 

If I tell you some do what will you give me?

Some do. They don't eat it per say but rather suck the juices out of it IIRC>

 

Hey now, you can't be withholding info like that Gresham, it's not fair ;D

 

Very cool.

 

now thats friggin cool lol