Science Video Friday: Solar-powered Sea Slug

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the phrase "solar power?"

Nudibranchs? Yeah, I thought so. Today's Science Video Friday introduces an amazing little sea slug with some brilliant colors and a unique energy-gathering strategy. Elysia diomedia uses kleptoplasty: ingesting the plastids from the algae it eats without destroying the plastids, and then using those photosynthetic plastids to produce energy for itself. That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard of.


For more information, check out The Sea Slug Forum.

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