It is, indeed, a sheep! That is, cow! Costasiella kuroshimae, sometimes known as “Leaf Sheep,” is the correct species. This lovely small sea slug feeds on algae much like the real thing and has adorable feelers that make it look like a cartoon sea sheep.
The unique feature of the little, charming species, which may grow to a maximum length of 5 mm and is found near Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, is that it is one of the world’s few photosynthesis-capable marine animals (the others all belong to the sacoglossa sea slug clade). When these odd animals ingest algae, they remove the chloroplasts and incorporate them into their own bodies through a process known as kleptoplasty. Because of this process, they are practically solar-powered slugs, which is generally only capable of being carried out by single-celled animals.
Check out this adorable “sea bunny” sea slug to seal the deal if this charming marine species has changed your mind about sea slugs.
This cute sea slug, which looks like a little sheep, likes eating algae.
It is one of just a few species on the planet that can photosynthesize with algae!
These little nibblers have been identified in countries as diverse as Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
The Sacoglossa sea slug, often known as the “sap-sucking sea slug” or “solar-powered sea slug,” is a notable example of this. To be completely fair to this little species, Costasiella kuroshimae, we might call it the “self-decapitating sea slug that bears a remarkable resemblance to Shaun the Sheep.”
In truth, there are 284 different species of Sacoglossa sea slugs found in temperate and tropical oceans across the world, but only C. kuroshimae looks like an adorable mix between Shaun the Sheep and a Medusa. It can be found in Southeast Asian rivers.
By the way, the cartoon character Shaun the Sheep appeared in a number of films, including “Farmageddon.” He’s adorable. But let’s get back to the sea slugs.While some of the other Sacoglossans have a passing resemblance to adorable ovines, others resemble seaweed, and this is no coincidence.
Sacoglossans are classified as a “superorder” by zoologists and may be separated into two groups: those with shells, like their cousin the snail, and are basically bivalve gastropods, and those that developed without shells. “Shaun” the sheep Sacoglossans do not have a shell. They are the ones who, despite the fact that they are not, are popularly referred to as “sea sheep.”
What binds these several Sacoglossan branches together is their strange affinity with algae.Sacoglossans have only one row of minuscule teeth on their radula, whereas snails have hundreds of microscopic teeth that rasp food particles from – you don’t want to know where.
The “sap-sucking sea slugs” extract plasma from algal cells via their radula, which is rather unthreatening. Shelled sacoglossans love Caulerpa seaweed, which looks like a sea soybean plant. The sap-sucking sea slugs easily absorb this plasma. This isn’t all that unusual. Non-shelled Sacoglossa consumes siphonalean or septate green algae as well.
The other Sacoglossans distinguish them from the rest of the world’s multicellular creatures by “weeding out” the chloroplasts from the algae they consume, sequestering them inside their own tissues and using the embezzled chloroplasts to perform the same thing the algae did with them: photosynthesize.