My Modern Met: Solar-Powered Sea Slugs

My Modern Met - Solar-Powered Sea Slugs: The Rare Organisms with Plant-Like Qualities

Meet the Elysia chlorotica, a bright green sacoglossa found along the Atlantic coast of North America that's earned the title of "solar-powered sea slug" for its ability to produce its own energy with sunlight and the chloroplasts that it sucks off of algae. This unusual process, which is similar to photosynthesis, is known as kleptoplasty. Except for a select number of creatures like the adorable "leaf sheep" Costasiella kuroshimae nudibranch, very few non-plant organisms are capable of the phenomenon...