Real Life Scifi Sea Creatures: The Glaucus Atlanticus / Glaucilla Marginata
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 | Glaucus atlanticus, animal life, blue sea slug, cool
above [ Glaucilla Marginata ]
These fun creatures are so scifi looking it makes me want to blast lasers into the stars (for the second time today)... Anyway.. I thought I would collect some information on these cool little buggers and pass it on. Read on for more fun pics and learning!
above [ Glaucus Atlanticus ]
The atlanticus is the larger relative of the marginate. Roughly 5 - 8 centimeters in length, this little creature spends its time living off the east and south coasts of South Africa. It has six appendages, called cerata (dorsal and lateral limb-type structures) that fan out from its sexually indifferent body (they are hermaphrodites, which means they have both female and male parts) as IF you didn't know.
Additionally, these mini-beasts secrete a venom that can take down larger sea creatures, such as the famous Portuguese Man o' War. Seen below in the video.
above [ sea slug sexy anime girl ]
All-n-all, these are pretty bad ass and cool looking creatures. Lets hope that one day they rise up and take over Earth. All in lovely scifi fashion. There is no peace when you can take down a Portuguese Man o' War.
Reader Comments (5)
Saw these alot when I was vactioning and surfing in Oz this past January :) Was wondering what they were, thanks for the info!
No problem.. they are pretty awesome little sea creatures... i am jealous you got to see on in the real world :)
where did you get the pictures
I wonder what thier real sizes are?
they grow to approx. 35mm in size. They eat jellyfish and store the nematocysts produced by the jellyfish in their cells to ward of predators. Another neat aspect of them is they swallow a bubble of air in order to float around...very smart for a slug.