Welcome back to another Weirdo Wednesday! Allow me to introduce you to…
The Sea Angel: Clione limacina
Not an angel, but a sea slug! Their name comes from the tiny wing-like appendages known as peropoida, that allow them to glide through the water in a quick sculling motion. This 7 cm long weirdo is hermaphroditic, meaning the have both male and female parts for reproduction! They come together in large groups when it’s time to reproduce and release their eggs/sperm into the water. They’re found in the icy waters of the Arctic, subarctic, and the Pacific Ocean, from the surface to about 600ft below.
Not what they seem
It may surprise you to know that these graceful weirdos are predators! They feed exclusively on a shelled pteropod called a sea butterfly (those of you who play Animal Crossing know what that is!). Is it wrong that a sea snail eats another sea snail? Who’s to say. They grab their pray with tentacles and pry them out of their shells with small hook-like appendages and deposits them straight into their gut! The sea angel plays an important part in the marine food chain by being a source of food for jellies, ctenophores, fishes, baleen whales, and birds! The benefit of being in the deep sea and transparent though is predators have a harder time finding you!! But they have another defense mechanism… They release a chemical compound that makes them taste bitter!
Conservation
The sea angel is a specialist when it comes to the kind of food it eats, which can be a problem if something happens to the food source. Ocean acidification has caused issues for organisms with shells, like the sea butterflies. Their calcium carbonate shells are being to dissolve in more acidic waters, making it harder for them to swim and ultimately it costs them too much energy. These weirdos are not in any immediate danger of going extinct, but as their only source of food becomes scarce that may change.
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