Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs Codexery

Nudibranch

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Nudibranch

Peter Southwood · CC BY-SA 3.0

About 3,000 species are known, noted for their extraordinary colours and striking forms.[1] The name nudibranch means "naked gills" and is pronounced with a hard "k" sound.[2] Belonging to the order Nudibranchia, these soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs lose their shells after the larval phase.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumMollusca
  3. ClassGastropoda
  4. OrderNudibranchia

Named by Cuvier, 1817

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Nudibranch (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Key facts and history

Nudibranchs occur in seas worldwide, from the Arctic to the Southern Ocean, and live from the intertidal zone to depths over 700 m.[3][4] Nudibranchs are benthic animals, with exceptions including the neustonic Glaucus and the pelagic Cephalopyge trematoides.[5] Nudibranchs are hermaphroditic but cannot fertilize themselves, and they typically deposit eggs within a gelatinous spiral.[6][7] Nudibranchs have lost their shells and developed alternative defence mechanisms, including chemical defences, camouflage, and aposematic colouration.[8]

Some species store nematocysts from hydroids in their cerata for their own protection.[9][2] Warm, shallow reef environments host the highest variety of nudibranchs, yet a single species has been found living at roughly 2500 m depth.[4] The year 2024 saw the description of Bathydevius caudactylus, a bathypelagic nudibranch that is the sole member of its group known to live a bathypelagic existence and is among the very few that are bioluminescent.[4][10] Philip Henry Gosse wrote in 1884 that "Professor Grant" (likely Robert Edmond Grant) had observed two nudibranch species producing sounds that humans can hear.[11]

What the cited sources add

Hans Bertsch notes that yellow nudibranchs are found on yellow sponges, illustrating camouflage.[2] Bertsch also explains that eolid nudibranchs pass stinging cells to the tips of their cerata for their own protective arsenal.[2] The Aquaticcommunity.com account states that nudibranchs are sometimes kept in reef aquariums but are often short-lived due to poor understanding of their care.[12] The same source clarifies that all known nudibranch species are carnivorous, contradicting the false marketing of them as algae eaters.[12]

Rayne reports that Bathydevius caudactylus lives 1,000–4,000 meters deep and lacks a radula, the tongue-like structure most nudibranchs eat with.[10] Rayne also notes that B. caudactylus is only the third known bioluminescent nudibranch.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (2nd edition),; Thompson, "Feeding in nudibranch larvae", Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2009, p. 239–248; Turnbull, "The Nudibranch – Creature Feature", Nature New South Wales, Spring 2016, p. 16–17; Bronson, Wilfrid (1935). Water People.; Ocean Portal (2017). A Collage of Nudibranch Colors. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 17 April 2018. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Hans Bertsch, Nudibranchs: Marine slugs with verve. "Navanax inermis[..] is the bane of all nudibranchs because it is one of the few known predators of this gro. facts only, no text reused. slugsite.us
  3. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ocean Portal (2017). A Collage of Nudibranch Colors. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 17 April 2018.; Nudibranchs , Fishermen Scuba.; "Integrative systematics of northern and Arctic nudibranchs of the genus Dendronotus (Mollusca, Gastropoda), with descriptions of three new species", Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, p. e0192177; "First true brackish-water nudibranch mollusc provides new insights for phylogeny and biogeography and reveals paedomorphosis-driven evolution", PLOS ONE, 2018 (original not re en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nudibranchs , Fishermen Scuba.; "Discoveries of deep-sea biomass and biodiversity using an ROV", Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Robison, "Discovery and description of a remarkable bathypelagic nudibranch, Bathydevius caudactylus, gen. et. sp. nov.", Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 2024-12-01; Rayne, "Researchers finally identify the ocean's "mystery mollusk"", Ars Technica, 2024-12-02 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nudibranchs , Fishermen Scuba.; Steinberg, "The pelagic nudibranch, Cephalopyge trematoides (Chun, 1889), in New South Wales with a note on other species in this genus", Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1956, p. 184–192; G.M. Mapstone & M.N. Arai, Siphonophora (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) of Canadian Pacific Waters, p.33. "The best-documented predators of pelagic cnidarians from the phy; Robison, "Discovery and description of a remarkable bathypelagic nudibranch, Bathydevius caudactylus, gen. et. sp. nov.", Deep Sea Research Pa en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Nudibranch", Aquaticcommunity.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Klussmann-Kolb A, "The Reproductive Systems of the Nudibranchia (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia): Comparative Histology and Ultrastructure of the Nidamental Glands with Aspects of Functional Morphology", Zoologischer Anzeig (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Edmunds, "Does warning colouration occur in nudibranchs?", Malacologia, 1991, p. 241–255 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frick, K, "Predator Suites and Flabellinid Nudibranch Nematocyst Complements in the Gulf of Maine", In: SF Norton (Ed). Diving for Science...2003., 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Rayne, "Researchers finally identify the ocean's "mystery mollusk"", Ars Technica, 2024-12-02. facts only, no text reused. arstechnica.com
  11. Wikipedia, "Nudibranch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: P.H. Gosse, Evenings at the Microscope, 1884 edition, p57 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. "Nudibranch", Aquaticcommunity.com. facts only, no text reused. aquaticcommunity.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Nudibranch (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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