50-80% of all life on Earth is found in the ocean. That makes sense considering the ocean covers 99% of Earth’s surface. The crazy thing is, scientists have only explored less than 10% of the entire ocean.
Despite how little of the ocean’s mass we’ve discovered thus far, what we have found is pretty incredible. Take these oddly adorable sea slugs for example.
Many of the slugs featured in this post are really snails that have lost their shells and gained new characteristics over the years through the process known as evolution. No matter how they originated, all of the sea slugs on this list are either Aliens from another Planet or some of nature’s most uniqely beautiful creations.
1. Blue Angel (Glaucus Atlanticus)
2. Sea Sheep (Costasiella Kuroshimae)
Learn more about the oh-so adorable Sea Sheep in a previous post here.
3. Phyllodesmium Poindimiei
4. Janolus Fuscus
5. Cadlinella Ornatissima
6. Hypselodoris Kanga
7. Dirona Albolineata
8. Cyerce Nigricans
9. Flabellina Iodinea
10. Sea Bunny (Acanthodoris Pilosa)
11. Leaf Slug (Elysia Chlorotica)
This sea slug doesn’t just look like a leaf. It acts one too, producing its own food from photosynthesis.
12. Lettuce Sea Slug (Elysia Crispata)
“Lettuce Sea Slug With a name like E. crispata and an appearance like curly salad greens, the Lettuce Sea Slug could almost find itself at home in your crisper drawer. It’s not even closely related to nudibranchs. It belongs to a different category of slug entirely, known as ‘sap-sucking slugs,’ named for its propensity for slurping the juicy bits out of the algae it eats. It even retains chloroplasts in its tissues that provide it with sugars.”
13. Janolus Fuscus
14. Hypselodoris Apolegma
15. Chromodoris Alius
16. Halgerda Batangas Orange Spotted
17. Nudibranch
