Blue Sea Slug
Dan Mulay
5/13/13
Science/Language Arts
Research Report
Blue Sea Slug The blue sea slug is the most unique creature in the sea. Just by taking one look at it, you can tell right off the bat that this beautiful work of nature is special. Known in the science community as the Glaucus Atlanticus, (WoRMS) the blue sea slug looks like a smaller version of a mythical creature. And with a majestic, fantasy monster-like appearance, this particular animal has a vast comportment of qualities that sets it apart from the rest. Let me try to paint a picture in your head of what the blue sea slug looks like so that you can begin to comprehend what makes these walks of life so breath-taking. The top of it is silverfish-white, while the bottom is black, white, and mainly a deep blue (Environmental Graffiti). As cool as it would be for the blue sea slug to be a large animal, disappointingly, it only grows up to 30mm to 40mm. Nonetheless, this exquisitely special slug is still absolutely glorious. The Glaucus Atlanticus has a long list of aliases including the blue ocean slug, the sea dragon, the sea swallow, and the sea lizard (Real Monstrosities). One could understand by taking a quick glance why this creature has amassed to so many nicknames. It’s magnificent! The blue ocean slug has 84 finger-like appendages called cereta and a long, false tail (Environmental Graffiti). And yes I was just describing an actual animal and not some mythical, dragon-like sea monster I made up. The sea dragon may be small, but, believe it or not, it’s an apex predator. That’s right. This 1 ½ inch long, floating, slug is at the top of its food chain. It seems unlikely, but it’s mostly because of its immunity to the poison of its prey. Mostly preying on mighty Portuguese Man O’ Wars, if the sea swallow’s main prey is scarce enough it will resort to cannibalism, and eat other sea swallows (Environmental Graffiti). And it may sound weird, but this aquatic slug swims upside down. This is
5/13/13
Science/Language Arts
Research Report
Blue Sea Slug The blue sea slug is the most unique creature in the sea. Just by taking one look at it, you can tell right off the bat that this beautiful work of nature is special. Known in the science community as the Glaucus Atlanticus, (WoRMS) the blue sea slug looks like a smaller version of a mythical creature. And with a majestic, fantasy monster-like appearance, this particular animal has a vast comportment of qualities that sets it apart from the rest. Let me try to paint a picture in your head of what the blue sea slug looks like so that you can begin to comprehend what makes these walks of life so breath-taking. The top of it is silverfish-white, while the bottom is black, white, and mainly a deep blue (Environmental Graffiti). As cool as it would be for the blue sea slug to be a large animal, disappointingly, it only grows up to 30mm to 40mm. Nonetheless, this exquisitely special slug is still absolutely glorious. The Glaucus Atlanticus has a long list of aliases including the blue ocean slug, the sea dragon, the sea swallow, and the sea lizard (Real Monstrosities). One could understand by taking a quick glance why this creature has amassed to so many nicknames. It’s magnificent! The blue ocean slug has 84 finger-like appendages called cereta and a long, false tail (Environmental Graffiti). And yes I was just describing an actual animal and not some mythical, dragon-like sea monster I made up. The sea dragon may be small, but, believe it or not, it’s an apex predator. That’s right. This 1 ½ inch long, floating, slug is at the top of its food chain. It seems unlikely, but it’s mostly because of its immunity to the poison of its prey. Mostly preying on mighty Portuguese Man O’ Wars, if the sea swallow’s main prey is scarce enough it will resort to cannibalism, and eat other sea swallows (Environmental Graffiti). And it may sound weird, but this aquatic slug swims upside down. This is