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New Egg Layer
Photograph courtesy Jeff Goddard
Pictured "knitting" a doily-like egg mass in a lab in 2008, a new species of fiery-colored nudibranch, or sea slug, has been found in shallow tide pools near a southern California campground, a new study says.
Marine biologist Jeff Goddard stumbled across the carnivorous 1.2-inch (3-centimeter) creature—later dubbed Flabellina goddardi—while searching for another sea slug in Carpinteria State Park (map) in 2008. Not long afterward, in the lab, the hermaphroditic critter laid a lacy egg mass, which hatched into tiny, snail-like babies.
"That was a treat," said Goddard, of the University of California, Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute—though not necessarily a surprise.
Sea slugs are often transparent—"you can see the gonads through the body," for example—and Goddard knew the animal was expecting. (See pictures of colorful sea slugs in National Geographic magazine.)
The elaborate latticework of the egg mass is a "trick of arrangement" to make sure all the embryos get enough oxygen, he added. "That whole string is packed with thousands of egg capsules."
Finding a new slug "right there under our noses" is a reminder that "there are still many species, especially in the oceans—even ones in our backyard—that haven't been described," he said. (See a picture of a bug-eating sea slug found recently in Thailand.)Plus, they're just plain stunning: "People are interested in butterflies and birds and brightly colored [animals]," he said. "This is the marine equivalent of butterflies."
The new sea slug species is formally described in the September 15 issue of the journal Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences.
—Christine Dell'Amore
Published September 23, 2010
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Sea Slug Eggs
Image courtesy Jeff Goddard
Pictured in a microscope image, Flabellina goddardi embryos prepare to hatch from their thin egg capsules in 2008.
The 0.1-millimeter-long babies hatch into shelled larvae after about a week after the eggs are laid, Goddard said. The babies feed and grow on plankton in shallow waters off California for a month or two before they settle, metamorphose, and start eating adult food, in this case probably plant-like organisms called hydroids.
(Watch a National Geographic magazine sea slug video.)
Published September 23, 2010
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Tooth-Studded Sea Slug Ribbon
Image courtesy Jeff Goddard
Like other sea slugs, or nudibranchs, the new species Flabellina goddardi has a "tooth-studded ribbon" called a radula to catch prey (pictured in an undated microscope image at a scale of ten microns), Goddard said.
But mysteriously, the new species has fewer teeth than other closely related sea slugs, he said.
(Solve a National Geographic magazine nudibranch puzzle.)
Published September 23, 2010
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Smooth New Species
Photograph courtesy Jeff Goddard
Pictured in 2008, F. goddardi is notable for its orange-and-red-tipped back tentacles, smooth head tentacles, and a long and delicate tail while crawling, Goddard said. "Those are three characteristics that made me think, Ooh, this one's new."
Generally, nudibranchs are brightly colored, either to camouflage themselves or to warn away predators, he added. Virtually all sea slugs taste horrible to predators—that's why they don't need protective shells.
As for F. goddardi's vibrant palette, though, "without knowing more about its biology, I'd be hesitant to say whether it's camouflage or warning."
(Related: "Sea Slug Chemical Blast Deters Lobster Predators.")Published September 23, 2010
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