Armed, Dangerous Atlantic Blue Sea Slug in Queensland, Australia

Summary: The armed, dangerous Atlantic blue sea slug floats past the Australian Royal Navy and the Border Force to wash up on beaches in Queensland, Australia.

Washed ashore at Bronte Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Atlantic blue sea slug is also known as blue glaucus, blue ocean slug, blue sea slug, lizard nudibranch and sea swallow: Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Armed and dangerous and Handle with Care advisories never appear on Glaucus atlanticus when the Atlantic blue sea slug evades Australian Royal Navy and Border Force vessels and floats to Australian shores.

The Atlantic blue ocean mollusk brings stunning blue iridescence and subtle grey greenness to white-sanded beaches in Queensland, northeast Australia, through a recently stranded specimen spotted Nov. 20, 2015, by Lucinda Fry. Mother Nature codes into brilliant body colors cautions of unexpected resistance and unpleasant consumption for potential predators.

Taxonomists do likewise with scientific classification systems since zoologists consider the Atlantic blue sea mollusk an echinoderm (hedgehog skin). Hard, minute, needlelike formations of calcium carbonate emerge on the Atlantic blue marine slug’s colorful exterior.

Eyewitnesses to live and washed-up specimens and researchers of museum collections find as many as 84 fingerlike cerata (wax-looking shell) protruding from the interior of the armed and dangerous blue alien. The spicules give terrifying looks to Atlantic blue ocean slug diminutive, slender, 3-centimeter- (1.18-inch-) long exteriors of bilateral (two-sided) symmetry, creeping tube feet and minimal exoskeleton. The mini-needles have defensive roles and storage capacities through the hardness of the mini-spikes and the poison within their interiors.

The Atlantic blue sea slug is a fearless predator of such hydrozoans (water animals) as jellyfish and polyps.

Scientists judge the Atlantic blue marine mollusk’s top defensive adaptations to be exterior countershading and mini-spiking and interior discs and mucous.

The Atlantic blue ocean mollusk keeps poison from the Portuguese man-of-war stored inside the spicules to cause death to natural enemies and pain to human handlers. Hard discs and protective mucous let the Atlantic blue sea mollusk swallow the Portuguese man-of-war’s cnidoblasts (nettle cells) filled with nematocysts (explosive stinging capsules and threads) without suffering the consequences that nevertheless are experienced by the armed and dangerous blue alien’s prey.

Countershading makes sure that the other defensive adaptations work since the Atlantic blue marine slug has body colors of blue, blue-green and grey.

No one and no thing notices the Atlantic blue ocean slug floating quietly through surface tension on the waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

The ability to swallow air bubbles for storage in the belly and the capability to take on the look of surface waters thanks to a blue under-side and the below-surface look through a grey upper-side offer ample opportunities for the Atlantic blue sea slug to elude flying and swimming predators by floating upside-down from one destination to another and from one food chain encounter to the next.

Life cycles and natural histories in the busiest southern routes of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans provide photo opportunities for amateurs and specialists, locals and residents, when predilections for warm currents draw the Atlantic blue marine mollusk, alive or dead, to the beaches of Australia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Atlantic blue sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) out of water; Sept. 12, 2012: Imtorn, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

blue dragon sea slug: Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_dragon-glaucus_atlanticus_%288599051974%29.jpg

Atlantic blue sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) out of water; Sept. 12, 2012: Imtorn, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaucus_atlant..jpg

For further information:

DNews. 23 November 2015. "Captivating Blue Dragon Sea Slug Washes Up in Australia." Seeker.
Available @ http://news.discovery.com/animals/captivating-blue-dragon-sea-slug-washes-up-in-australia-151123.htm

Epic Wildlife. 7 June 2013. "Deadly Sea Creature - Blue Angel." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MfLTRkPHpo