Meet the animal that's part vegetable - yes really!

Meet the animal that's part vegetable - yes really!

The Costasiella sea slug is a rare example of a photosynthetic animal, says Stuart Blackman. Here's what's so special about it

Published: December 23, 2024 at 3:23 pm

Did you know there's an animal that's part vegetable? Here's why...

The Costasiella sea slug above – also known as the ‘leaf sheep’ and ‘Shaun-the-sheep slug’ - is a photosynthetic animal. It spends much of its time grazing on marine algae.

But it doesn’t digest this plant matter entirely. Somehow, it separates the chloroplasts (the green organelles within a plant’s cells that convert sunlight into chemical energy) from the rest of the meal and embeds them in its own tissues, making the slug a rare example of a photosynthetic animal.

Understandably we named it one of the weirdest creatures in the sea

Discover more weird and wonderful creatures

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