You're like, really pretty. #October3
The rosy sea slug (Tritonia tetraquetra) can grow to 22 centimeters (about eight inches) in length. The two horn-like structures on Tritonia's head are rhinophores that allow the sea slug to "smell" chemical signals dissolved in seawater and help find its prey—deep-sea corals. It crawls onto corals and eats the soft polyps using its rasp-like tongue, called a radula. Two rows of white fluffy gills line the back of this precious poof, and that pretty pink color comes from its rosy-hued prey.
Also known as nudibranchs (pronounced “nood-i-branks”), this group of sea slugs lives in virtually all the world’s oceans, from the tide pools down into the deep sea. Unlike the dark, slimy relatives of the slugs we see in our gardens, they come in a wide array of bright colors and psychedelic patterns. Like many other deep-sea animals, the nudibranchs of the deep are poorly studied. Though scientists have named about 3,000 shallow-water nudibranchs, we have identified far fewer species that thrive in the deep ocean.
