sea slugs

It seems that this sea slug creature whose body is half the first half of flora fauna. Because this newly discovered snail can produce pigment chlorophyll like plants. Scientists estimate this cleverly stealing snail genes from the algae they eat so that it can produce chlorophyll. With the stolen genes they can photosynthesize, the process plants to convert sunlight into energy.

"These animals can make molecules contain energy without eating anything," said Sydney Pierce, a biologist from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Pierce has been studying these unique creatures, which have been officially named Elysia chlorotica, for 20 years.

He filed his latest findings on January 7, 2010, at the annual meeting of the Community for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle. This finding was first reported by the journal Science. "This is the first multicellular animals may produce chlorophyll," said Pierce.

These sea slugs live in saltwater marshes in New England, Canada. In addition to stealing the gene to produce the green pigment chlorophyll, these animals also steal small parts of cells called chloroplasts, which are used to perform photosynthesis. Chloroplasts using chlorophyll to convert sunlight into energy, like plants, so these animals do not need to eat to get energy.

"We collected a number of these animals and save them in an aquarium for months," Pierce said, "As long as the light was given for 12 hours a day, they can survive (without meals)."

The investigators used radioactive tracers to ensure that these snails actually produce chlorophyll, and not steal from the pigment that has been on the algae. In fact, these snails integrate genetic material with so perfect that it can be passed on to subsequent generations.