Impossible Plant-Animal Hybrid

Dark Roasted Blend ^ | April 24, 2012 | Avi Abrams

[Windflier]

Wildly bizarre half-plant/half-animal creature - with a lovely name "Eastern Emerald Elysia"

This beautiful leaf-shaped sea slug Elysia chlorotica lives in shallow pools along Atlantic coast of North America, eats algae with gusto - one meal is enough for its lifetime! - and by using photosynthesis like any other plant, shatters the most basic definition between the "animal" and "plant" kingdoms.

It may not be "easy being green", but for this slug it turned out to be highly efficient!

This is the ONLY natural example of genes shared between the living kingdoms of "plants" and "animals"

Shaped like a leaf? Check. Totally colored green? Check, although the young slugs are still colored brown until they eat their first "green" meal... but right after that, they're ready to make pigment chlorophyll a all by themselves for the rest of their lives!

One thing about Elysia chlorotica, "a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant" (via)... They don't just use chloroplasts from the algae they eat - this phenomenon, though rare, is known as kleptoplasty. What's more, they seem to have the particular genes that make them able to keep processing these chloroplasts in a consistent and sustainable way:

Elysia chlorotica likes to inhabit "salt marshes, tidal marshes, pools and shallow creeks, at depths of 0 m to 0.5 m".

[Windflier]

Talk about true "slacker" of the animal kingdom!

Consider Elysia chlorotica: when it comes to consuming chloroplasts, one slurping is enough! "It's the ultimate form of solar power: eat a plant ONCE, become photosynthetic for the rest of your life":

[FedsRStealingOurCountryFromUs]

Isn’t the Earth a plant/animal hybrid?

[Windflier]

Posted solely for the sake of diversion from the never-ending, soul crushing seriousness of the 2012 campaign.

Take a break and contemplate the exotic strangeness of planet Earth.

[Windflier]

Isn’t the Earth a plant/animal hybrid?

Only if GM builds it ;-)

[JimSEA]

That is fascinating! Thanks for posting. I’d heard of anything quite like this.

[Windflier]

That is fascinating! Thanks for posting.

You're welcome, Jim. I thought it was sufficiently interesting to share. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Louis Foxwell]

ping

[cripplecreek]

Symbiotic relationship.

[txhurl]

Are they hermaphroditic, too?

[SampleMan]

It's more common tha you think.

[Windflier]

Are they hermaphroditic, too?

Oh man, don't start with that. You're liable to draw Laz to the thread .. LOL

[upchuck]

Algae, slugs? Hey nobama, over here.

[Windflier]

It's more common than you think.

[Chaguito]

How does this differ from the photosynthesizing Euglena?

[null and void]

Only if GM builds it ;-)

Wouldn't it be a GMO then?

[Windflier]

Algae, slugs? Hey nobama, over here.

[Windflier]

How does this differ from the photosynthesizing Euglena?

Or the Venus Flytrap, for that matter....

Dunno, but it's better than beating my head against the wall about the election tonight.

[Windflier]

"Only if GM builds it ;-)"

Wouldn't it be a GMO then?

Looks like a re-classification may be in order!

[Wilhelm Tell]

That is amazing.

[Windflier]

That is amazing.

Our whole universe is pretty amazing. I'm continually surprised at the sorts of things scientists discover these days. Despite the political bs, we live in a fairly wondrous age.