Solar-Powered Sea Slugs

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p r e s e n t e d b y Science a-z a d i v i s i o n o f L e a r n i n g A - Z
Solar-Powered Sea Slugs
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By Ron Fridell
All living things need food. They use it for
energy to live and grow. How do living things
get food? Animals must search and hunt for
their food. They eat plants or other animals.
Plants use energy from the Sun to make their
own food.
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Numbers 3 and 4 are alike.
Art Prompt
© Olga Khoroshunova/123RF
Some people think sea slugs are the most beautiful creatures
in the sea. Look at these sea slugs. Then imagine a new kind
of sea slug and draw it. Make it interesting, colorful, and beautiful.
© Jupiterimages Corp.
Find the two slugs that are alike and circle them.
© iStockphoto.com/Rebecca Lowe
Sea Slug Twins
See Solar Sea Slugs on page 2
Elysia chlorotica
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
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© Nick Curtis and Ray Martinez
So animals can’t make their own food, right?
This is not true anymore. Scientists have found
one animal that can make its own food, just
like a plant. It’s a
green sea slug
that looks like a
leaf in the water.
Solar Sea Slugs
Write About This!
Continued from page 1
• S ometimes sea slugs
eat pointy animals.
The sharp points stick
out of the sea slug’s
body and protect it.
• Most sea slugs are
small. They can be
shorter than your little
finger. The biggest
ones are only as big
as a football.
© iStockphoto.com/Dave Bluck/Weslye Thornberry/ cbpix
• S ea slugs do not live
very long. The smallest
sea slugs live for only six
weeks. The biggest ones
live for about a year.
• Sea slugs eat sea
plants, such as algae
and plankton. They
also eat sea animals,
such as snails.
• S ea slugs live in oceans
all over the world. They
live in cold and warm
water. They live in
shallow and deep water.
© Jupiterimages Corp.
© iStockphoto.com/
Cathy Keifer/Keiichi Hiki
Some plants look like
animals, and some animals
resemble plants. Are these
organisms plants or animals?
They’re both animals!
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© iStockphoto.com/Zurijeta
Sea Slug Facts
There are thousands of different
kinds of sea slugs. Many of
them have lots of colors and
designs on their bodies. Some
even have body parts that look
like horns. They use them to
taste and smell in the water.
© Learning A–Z All rights reserved.
What if you could use the Sun’s
energy to make food inside yourself?
Write a story or poem about how
your life would change.
© 2008 Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences Publication
At first, this amazing animal does
eat. It eats tiny green things that
can make their own food. Then
the sea slug can stop eating.
Now it can make its own food,
too. What a special sea slug!
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