Tropical Gasflame

From American Museum of Natural History

Have you ever seen the tropical gasflame (Phestilla sibogae)? This colorful critter is a nudibranch-one of more than 2,000 known species of these soft-bodied marine molluscs. Growing only up to 1.4 in (3.5 cm) long, this sea slug inhabits parts of the Indo-Pacific. Notice the tentacle-like structures on its body? They're called cerata. Nudibranchs use them to store stinging cells from prey like jellyfish, converting their meals into a form of self defense!

Photo: profmollusc, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, iNaturalist

66 points · 2 comments · view on lemmy.world

2 Comments

FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21d (1 reply)

Definitely a leafsheep going through a teenage angsty phase!

(Nudibranchs are incredible!)

anon6789@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21d

It's hard to believe they're from this planet!

I was subbed to the nudibranch comm for a bit, but it died off a while back. Lots of neat stuff still there though.