IT’S A SLUG’S GAME

SOLAR-POWERED SEA SLUG

t looks like a tiny, cartoon sheep, but this is in fact one of more than 4,700 known species of sea slug that creep and occasionally swim through the ocean. Known as the leaf sheep (), this sea slug lives around coral reefs, where it grazes on clumps of algae. The green colouration comes directly from its food – a leaf sheep retains the algae’s chloroplasts (tiny cellular structures that harness the Sun’s energy to make sugars), and incorporates them into its skin, where they continue to photosynthesise. This trick of stealing chloroplasts,