A new slug has been found by researchers at the University of South Florida, it is a slug that is part animal and part plant. It is the first animal/multicellular organism that has ever been found to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll, therefore, carrying out photosynthesis. Researchers are suggesting that the slug got the ability to produce chlorophyll from eating algae, but now their genetic material has changed, and they no longer need to eat the algae to produce chlorophyll, they can do it by themselves. They also steal the chloroplasts so that they can conduct photosynthesis, turning energy into food, making it so that they do not need to eat food; but if it is a dark day for at least 12 hours, then the slugs will have to eat, they have to have sunlight to be able to make, and go without eating food. These strange sea slugs are only found in salt marshes in Canada and New England. The main researcher Pierce has said that, "It is certainly possible that DNA from one species can get into another species, as these slugs have clearly shown, but the mechanisms are still unknown." Although these new hybrid slugs have been discovered, there is still a lot left that we do not know about them. But for now, we know that they are the first animal species that can produce the plant substance cholorphyll.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34824610/ns/technology_and_science-science/
This is pretty cool. It just goes to show you how diverse the natural world really is. I never thought that there would be an animal that could produce chlorophyll! This is a remarkable discovery.
ReplyDeleteHoly Cow! who has ever heard of such! It is amazing what our planet has in store for us to discover! I would have never thought there their could be such thing as a plant and an animal together! If we could discover this, just imagine what else we could find!
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