The tiny angelic sea slug that fires tentacles from its head
This delicate little angel flies through the water, then fires six tentacles out of its head.
Which one is REALLY true about the Sea Angel?
The short version
The sea angel is a swimming sea slug about a centimetre long with a transparent body and two flapping wings. It hunts sea butterflies: six grasping tentacles shoot from its head, seize the shell, and it slowly pulls the animal out to eat it before the tentacles retract again.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Sea Angel is a swimming sea slug barely a centimetre long, with a body you can see straight through.
- ✓The Sea Angel flies through the water by flapping two wings, which is how it earned its angelic name.
- ✓The Sea Angel hunts sea butterflies, another kind of swimming snail, despite looking completely harmless.
- ✓The Sea Angel shoots six grasping tentacles out of its own head to seize a sea butterfly's shell.
- ✓The Sea Angel holds on for hours, slowly dragging its out of its shell before the tentacles retract again.
You could line up about 61 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
This tiny, angelic creature is one of the ocean's strangest predators. Meet the sea angel, a swimming sea slug barely a centimetre long, with a transparent body and two wings that it flaps to fly through the water. It looks delicate and completely harmless. Then it finds its prey. Sea angels hunt sea butterflies, another kind of swimming snail, and when one drifts too close, six grasping tentacles fire out of the sea angel's head and seize the shell. It holds on, sometimes for hours, slowly dragging the animal out of its own shell to eat it. Then the tentacles retract, and it goes straight back to looking like a tiny drifting angel. Sailors once called them the butterflies of the sea, which turns out to be only half the story. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Sea Angel is a swimming sea slug barely a centimetre long, with a body you can see straight through.”
“The Sea Angel shoots its own sticky internal organs out of its rear at attackers.”
“The Sea Angel flies through the water by flapping two wings, which is how it earned its angelic name.”