Making the most of a meal

Sophie Moynihan
7B
Science for kids

Scientists have discovered a type a slug called the Elysia chlorotica that looks like a plant and feeds buy sucking the nutrients out of the algae it feeds off of. A marine biologist named Sydney Pierce decided to look into these snails, and found some extraordinary discoverys. Pierce knew that these animals had the chemical in them that allows them to photosynthesize, or turn sunlight into food. Pierce has know found that not only can they turn light into food, they can also create chlorophyll, which is a chemical that is vital for the process. These slugs are starting to act like there food. “This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” John Zardus. Mr. Zardus is a zoologist at the The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He specializes in invertebrates like these snails. In the algae and in every plant cells are chloroplasts. These chloroplasts absorbs sun, water, and air to make chlorophyll. When the snails eat the algae, it separates the chloroplasts instead of digesting them It Then absorbs the chloroplasts into its own cell system. But the chloroplasts use up the chlorophyll during photosynthesis. Pierce has dicovered that the slug dosn't only steal the chloroplasts, but also the gene that allows it to make chlorophyll. These slugs are takings the saying "You are what you eat" to a whole new level.

This article really interested me. I loved how the theme was that the snails were taking the saying " You are what you eat" to a whole new level. These snails have adapted to know how to separate the chloroplasts from everything else they eat and I think that is insane. They can separate the minuscule chloroplasts from everything else they eat! If that isn't true adaption I'm not sure what is.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100127/Feature1.asp