Corey posted a reply to a posting of mine with this TED video where Theo Jansen talks about his "Strandbeests" made out of bamboo and water bottles and walk, use binary code for primitive logic, and evolve. So, pretty amazing. He basically made a self sufficient simple animal.
Simple animals are so odd.
Gerald Durrell wrote this about the Sea Slug in his book My Family and Other Animals:
"...they looked exactly like overgrown sausages made out of thick, brown, carunculated leather--dim, primitive beasts that just lie in one spot, rolling gently with the sea's swing, sucking in sea-water at one end of their bodies and passing it out at the other. The minute vegetable and animal life in the water is filtered off somewhere inside the sausage and passed to the simple mechanism of the sea-slug's stomach. No one could say that the sea-slugs led interesting lives."
But then....
Simple animals are so odd.
Gerald Durrell wrote this about the Sea Slug in his book My Family and Other Animals:
"...they looked exactly like overgrown sausages made out of thick, brown, carunculated leather--dim, primitive beasts that just lie in one spot, rolling gently with the sea's swing, sucking in sea-water at one end of their bodies and passing it out at the other. The minute vegetable and animal life in the water is filtered off somewhere inside the sausage and passed to the simple mechanism of the sea-slug's stomach. No one could say that the sea-slugs led interesting lives."
But then....
BAM!
Boring? I think not! Well, yes they are in some respects, and yes some do float around ugly and brown in the water but, regardless, here's a few interesting tid-bits:
First, these Nudibranchs (hahhah!!)have a pretty ridiculous way to become poisonous. Apparently, they eat poisons then squirt them out their skin to protect themselves. National Geographic says " Species that dine on toxic sponges, for example, alter and store the irritating compounds in their bodies and secrete them from skin cells or glands when disturbed. Other nudibranchs hoard capsules of tightly coiled stingers, called nematocysts, ingested from fire corals, anemones, and hydroids. Immune to the sting, the slugs deploy the stolen artillery along their own extremities."
Ingest dangerous thing to then push it out of your body to inflict pain on others. Genius!
Then there's this sea-slug that has done something that I have always always wanted to do--steal plant cells. Scientists at the University of South Florida in Tampa say that the slugs managed to take some genes from the algea it eats and now produces chlorophyll and uses photosynthesis. Damnit!
Conclusion: Sea-slugs, or Nudibranchs (hahahha!) are masters at stealing to achieve the ultimate life of relaxation without being bothered.
Yup.
Boring? I think not! Well, yes they are in some respects, and yes some do float around ugly and brown in the water but, regardless, here's a few interesting tid-bits:
First, these Nudibranchs (hahhah!!)have a pretty ridiculous way to become poisonous. Apparently, they eat poisons then squirt them out their skin to protect themselves. National Geographic says " Species that dine on toxic sponges, for example, alter and store the irritating compounds in their bodies and secrete them from skin cells or glands when disturbed. Other nudibranchs hoard capsules of tightly coiled stingers, called nematocysts, ingested from fire corals, anemones, and hydroids. Immune to the sting, the slugs deploy the stolen artillery along their own extremities."
Ingest dangerous thing to then push it out of your body to inflict pain on others. Genius!
Then there's this sea-slug that has done something that I have always always wanted to do--steal plant cells. Scientists at the University of South Florida in Tampa say that the slugs managed to take some genes from the algea it eats and now produces chlorophyll and uses photosynthesis. Damnit!
Conclusion: Sea-slugs, or Nudibranchs (hahahha!) are masters at stealing to achieve the ultimate life of relaxation without being bothered.
Yup.
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