Name: The fantastically weird world of photosynthetic sea slugs
Uploaded: 2023-03-06T15:45:10Z
Duration: 12 min 44 s
Description: Meet the fantastically colorful and astonishingly adaptable sea slugs that found a way to photosynthesize (or create energy from sunlight) like plants. Diving deep into these often overlooked creatures, invertebrate zoologist Michael Middlebrooks introduces the solar-powered slugs that lost their shells -- but gained the ability to directly harness the power of the sun.

Michael Middlebrooks: The fantastically weird world of photosynthetic sea slugs

The fantastically weird world of photosynthetic sea slugs

Meet the fantastically colorful and astonishingly adaptable sea slugs that found a way to photosynthesize (or create energy from sunlight) like plants. Diving deep into these often overlooked creatures, invertebrate zoologist Michael Middlebrooks introduces the solar-powered slugs that lost their shells -- but gained the ability to directly harness the power of the sun.

Certain sea slugs have evolved the remarkable ability to photosynthesize, just like plants, by stealing and storing chloroplasts from algae. Some can survive for months on sunlight alone, fueling their bodies without eating. These 'solar-powered' slugs challenge assumptions about what animals can do and reveal just how much remains unknown beneath the waves. Their biology is a vivid reminder of nature’s ingenuity and the mysteries still waiting to be uncovered.