Nudibranch — printable fact sheet
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Nudibranch
Chromodoris willani (example)
Nudibranchs are sea slugs that have thrown away their shell and replaced it with chemistry. There are around 3,000 described species, and the group's defining trick is the theft of other organisms' weapons: aeolid nudibranchs eat hydroids, anemones and even Portuguese man o' war…
Did you know?
- Some nudibranchs can photosynthesize by storing algae or chloroplasts from their food within their own tissues, allowing them to derive energy from sunlight.
- The blue sea dragon, Glaucus atlanticus, floats upside down at the ocean surface, eats Portuguese man o' war, and concentrates the stolen nematocysts to a potency greater than the jelly it stole them from — a beached one can sting worse than the original. Nudibranch colour is often diet-derived, and the same species eating a different sponge can be a completely different colour. Some species can autotomise their cerata when attacked, leaving the wriggling, stinging appendages behind as a distraction, and regrow them later.
What I learned
Draw the nudibranch
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