Sea slug actually is half plant, half animal!

[bugmankeith]

One species of sea slug makes it's own food like plants do!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100112/sc_livescience/surprisingseaslugishalfplanthalfanimal

 

[8by8]

Wow. Thats pretty awesome, never knew anything could do that. I wonder if a T could do that by eating roach's gut-loaded with algae? Probably not.

 

[bugmankeith]

Next Humans with green blood lol

 

[Black Widow88]

That is insane!

This is going on my insect blog! Thank you!

 

[MexicanRedKnee]

I have a reef tank and there are actually many animals with algae in their tissues that produce food for them. Many stony and soft corals have algae in their tissues, as well as the tridacna clams.

 

[Black Widow88]

I have a reef tank and there are actually many animals with algae in their tissues that produce food for them. Many stony and soft corals have algae in their tissues, as well as the tridacna clams.

Really? I never knew that. Fascinating!

 

[Kirk]

I have a reef tank and there are actually many animals with algae in their tissues that produce food for them. Many stony and soft corals have algae in their tissues, as well as the tridacna clams.

These are well known symbiotic instances. What's especially interesting in the article is that the mollusk has actually incorporated the genes for chlorophyll production into it's own genome.

 

[jbm150]

That is so very cool. Nudibranchs are thieving critters, taking and incorporating zooxanthellae from corals and nematocysts from anemones and jellyfish

EDIT: let me correct myself, opisthobranchs are thieving critters. This is a sacogloss, not a nudibranch

 

[Black Widow88]

That is so very cool. Nudibranchs are thieving critters, taking and incorporating zooxanthellae from corals and nematocysts from anemones and jellyfish

That I heard about.

 

[JPJ]

Moving down the evolutionaly chain a bit we find this little fellow... http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/euglenacolor.htm

The wonders of life.

 

[Black Widow88]

The wonders of life.

I know right? I remember learning about these. Fascinating.

 

[Kirk]

Moving down the evolutionaly chain a bit we find this little fellow... http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/euglenacolor.htm

The wonders of life.

But, the chloroplasts in euglenoids are procaryote-derived organelles. They aren't products of the cell itself. Remove the chloroplasts and the cell can't produce more.