Biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (USA) discovered a floating transparent sea slug in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. He settled in a place atypical for his species — an abyssal zone of the ocean where sunlight does not reach.
This is stated in a study published in the database of scientific articles Science Direct.
Usually, such invertebrates live in areas of the ocean closer to the surface. They use a muscular leg to move along the bottom. However, the deep-sea swimming slug is special in that it has a specific cap that helps it float in the water column.
The mollusk moves in water.
Science Direct
For the first time, nudibranchs, or sea slugs, were spotted in 2000 off the coast of California. Then another 156 representatives of this species were found near the Pacific coast of the USA. Mollusks 5-15 centimeters in size lived at a depth of 1-4 kilometers. They have tails with finger-like appendages that glow in the dark and detach from the body in case of danger.
A deep-water slug glows in the dark.
Science Direct
The name of slugs, Bathydevius caudactylus, literally means "deep-water deceiver with fingers at the bottom of the body" in Latin. Genetic analysis shows that the species belongs to a separate evolutionary branch within the range of nudibranch molluscs. This is the third branch within which molluscs developed the ability to glow in the dark. The discovery reminds us, say scientists, that animals can live in the depths of the ocean, the existence of which humanity still does not know.
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