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Name : Leaf sheep , or leaf bullet ( Costasiella kuroshimae )
Where it lives : Shallow water across Asia and the Coral Triangle
Could this undersea critter who looks like a green sheep be the cutest mini-seabeast on the planet?
What it eats : Algae
Why it ’s awful : These flyspeck nautical creatures are in all probability substantially known by their sobriquet , " Shaun the Sheep " ocean slugs , because of their preternatural resemblance to the iconic video persona .
The lovely critters have blank faces , little black heart and two " ears . " These structure are particular variety meat call rhinophores cut across in tiny hairs that facilitate the leaf sheep sense chemical substance in the urine and find intellectual nourishment . Their tiny trunk are covered with green structure called cerata , which look like leaves and give them a larger surface area for gas commutation .
Growing to 0.3 inches ( 8 millimeters ) long , leaf sheep were first light upon off Kuroshima Island , Japan , in 1993 . They have also been recorded in the Philippines , Indonesia , Singapore and Thailand . Shaun the Sheep ocean bullet are establish in shallow Ethel Waters near coral reefs . They live on alga , which also provides them with food .
Solar-powered sea slugs
When foliage sheep Edvard Munch on algae , they suck up chloroplast — extra structures where photosynthesis takes place . These are filled with chlorophyl , and the green paint gives the sea slug ' bodies a foliage - like colour . This not only helps them fuse in with their milieu to better hide from predators but also gives them a clever way of generating intellectual nourishment .
connect : Blue dragon : The deadly sea slug that steals malice from its fair game
The ocean slug steal the chloroplast through a process calledkleptoplasty — from the Greek tidings for " thief " — and stack away them in their tissues for up to 10 day . The chloroplast stay work inside the animals , enabling them to create energy through photosynthesis .
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" conceive of you ate a salad and keep the chloroplast from it in your digestive system , so you just need to put yourself under the sun to make food,“Miguel Azcuna , assistant prof of marine natural products chemistry at Batangas State University in the Philippines , told theBBC . " It ’s commodious for survival . " Azcuna is an expert in coral Rand environmental science .
Along withcorals , pick out salamandersandgiant clams , these solar - powered slugs are among the few animals that can photosynthesize .
