Reader Brian called my attention to a beautiful collection of sea slugs (nudibranchs, or shell-less marine gastropods) at EarthTouch News Network. It’s likely, but not certain, that the striking appearance of many species, as you see here, are aposematic: they advertise the fact that they’re toxic, distasteful, or dangerous (stinging cells) with their easily-recognized patterns and colors.
These marine jewels all come from one small area. As the site notes:
Take a dive in the waters surrounding Pulau Hantu, a small island off the west coast of Singapore, and you may reemerge feeling unimpressed. Visibility around the island rarely tops three to four metres, and plentiful algae tints the water a vivid green. For macro photographers like Katherine Lu, however, Hantu is a hidden gem. The island harbours a little-known reef that’s teeming with tiny marine life – and among its most remarkable inhabitants are the local sea slugs.
All photos are by Lu; captions are from the website:
This little creature can photosynthesize in its body:
For more of Lu’s fantastic photography, go here.
Cute little buggers. They look good enough to eat!
… wait…
I saw the headline in my RSS feed without the pictures and my first thought was that the article would be about yummy to eat sea slugs.
if only their land cousins could be as pretty.
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
“Shaun the sheep” fantastic adaptation!
Amazing display of colour and form from these little creatures… thanks.
Sheep face, pasture body.
Descriptive term for its chloroplasts–“kleptoplasts.”
Glen Davidson
Beautiful. 3-4 meter visibility can be some of the best dives. That’s about all you get in some lake Michigan wreck dives and you’ll find many tiny life forms if you stop to look.
Credit the invasive Zebra Muscles. They filter out the cloudy plankton so your camera can get a good grip on your prey. When I lived near Lake Michigan in the 1960s, visibility was about 6 – 10 feet.
Quite right. Zebra muscles and Asian carp are wreaking havoc on ecosystems from the Mississippi into the Great Lakes. I’ve cut myself more than once on the little buggers cleaning debris in Burnham Harbor.
Wow, did not know they could be so pretty!
Natures beauty is unsurpassed.
Now that’s the kind of nudi beach I wanna go visit!
I really love that B. anguilla! It looks perfectly adapted for camouflage in a 1970’s living room.
One doesn’t normally see “gorgeous” and “sea slug” together, but this is indeed an excellent (and gorgeous) exception.
Exception?
Don’t think so, just google “sea slug”
Ace!
Are there any ideas on the adaptive significance of so much color?
Well the last one is explained – it makes energy/food.
The other ones? Not sure. Probably more than one reason. Some may be “don’t eat me – poison” while others may need the light if the water is murky. Heck, if they’re in a little lagoon with few predators, it could even be some sort of reproductive display.
clearly evidence of Intelligent Design
Beautiful little buggers. 2-3mm? How did she even see Shaun the sheep?
One word: Wow!
They’re gorgeous. I like the second one the most. The last one looks like it has a white Pikachu face.
The last one would have confused – and fascinated – the world’s first marine biologist (Aristotle) as it would certainly get even closer to (what he took to be) the plant-animal corner cases he had trouble with.
To me, they all resemble beautiful flowers.