Tiny thief 20187/28/2023 They want to learn more about how these delicate little sea slugs survive and how changing ocean temperatures might threaten their futures. Gosliner and Brenna Green and Emily Otstott, graduate students at San Francisco State University, were out at dawn earlier this summer searching tidepools and floating docks around the Bay Area. And some aren’t above stealing weapons from their prey. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)Īs it turns out, the nudibranchs’ colors serve as a warning to predators: These sea slugs are packing some very sophisticated defenses. Scientists think the bright colors serve as a warning to predators. “They're kind of designer slugs.”īut without a protective shell, big jaws or sharp claws, how do these squishy little creatures get away with such flamboyant colors in a habitat full of predators? A nudibranch with bright orange cerata on its back. “Some of them are bright red, blue, yellow - you name it,” said Terry Gosliner, senior curator of invertebrate zoology and geology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The summer months bring low morning tides along the California coast, providing an opportunity to see one of the state’s most unusual inhabitants, sea slugs.Īlso called nudibranchs, many of these relatives of snails are brightly colored and stand out among the seaweed and anemones living next to them in tidepools.
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