Queen Marika's Essays / Part 67: Are Sea Slugs Transcendent Lifeforms?

Hello✨😃 This is Queen Marika⭐️

This time it's a science topic, but it also serves as an explanatory article for Jewel V...😅

But don't worry, you can read it even if you haven't read Jewel V🙇‍♀️

Part 67: Are Sea Slugs Transcendent Lifeforms?

In this episode of Jewel V, a creature called the Green Shell appeared.

First, let me introduce its appearance.

Doesn't that not look like a shell?

Well...😅

The Green Shell is a type of sea slug. The English name for sea slug translates directly to 'sea slug,' and since they are shell-less mollusks, please forgive this name🙇‍♀️

This Green Shell had an ability that caught the eyes of Gejo and Scaly. That is...😨

When in a pinch, they detach their own heads! 😱
And then, they regenerate their entire body from that severed head state!

I mean... it's not like they're creatures from fiction...

But, since they really do regenerate, there's nothing I can do about it 😔

This ability was discovered in 2021 at a laboratory at Nara Women's University.

However, regenerating a body is a difficult task.

I will explain the difficulty of this using characters often seen in anime who instantly regenerate severed limbs.

If you lose an arm, you also lose that much flesh and bone. Therefore, to regenerate an arm, you first need to recover the lost flesh and bone.

In other words, it's impossible unless you eat a lot 😅

At this point, it has become clear that regenerating an arm instantly is impossible 😱

Wait a minute!

The green sea slug regenerates its entire body!
It's not just a matter of one arm!

Even if it's not instantaneous, how does it procure the flesh for an entire body?
When only the head is left?

That is correct.

Since its actions are severely limited with only its head, it is quite difficult to eat enough to procure the flesh for an entire body 😥

Then, how does the green sea slug procure the flesh for its entire body while only having its head?

Actually... 😨

Because the green sea slug has chloroplasts within its cells, it creates the materials for its flesh through photosynthesis 😆

Wait a minute!

The green sea slug is an animal, right?
What do you mean it has chloroplasts?

It is astonishing that an animal possesses chloroplasts and obtains nutrients through photosynthesis.

But you will be even more surprised by what comes next... 😏

The green sea slug eats algae and takes the chloroplasts contained within the cells of the algae it ate directly into its own cells 😆 (This ability is called 'kleptoplasty')

In other words, they incorporate the abilities of the creatures they eat as their own.

Are you some kind of monster from Ultraman or something?!😱

The green sea slug does things that are hard to believe.

To get back to the point, the green sea slug can photosynthesize because it incorporates the chloroplasts of the algae it eats into its cells.

So, even if it's reduced to just its head, it can create the materials for its body through photosynthesis and regenerate its entire body.

Green sea slug, you're insane!😅

There are other sea slugs with similar abilities to the green sea slug.

It's the Favorinus japonicus (red-gilled sea slug).😆

The frills on its back are vivid, aren't they?😃

But don't touch these frills. You'll get stung!😱

The red-gilled sea slug hides venomous stingers in its frills. However, these stingers are not weapons they are born with.😨

They eat jellyfish and sea anemones, and arm themselves with their stinging cells! 😆

Can you also use the abilities of the creatures you eat?

Honestly, they're basically Ultra Kaiju or something at this point. 😅

The saying "truth is stranger than fiction" was made for the blue glaucus and the red-gilled nudibranch.

Don't you think they are such incredible creatures that it's no exaggeration to say that?

And with that, I'll wrap things up by pretending to be a fun science corner for once. ⭐️

Click here for other articles in the Essays series!