The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails - io9 Comments

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

travelina — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:19:11 PDT

There's a little video that goes along with the photo gallery where David Doubilet talks about these creatures and how he photographed them. There's tango music in the background:
[ngm.nationalgeographic.com]

travelina

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

JimPivonka — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:08:39 PDT

@ taxbaby

bivalves are phylum Mollusca, Class Pelycopoda

Snails and slugs are Mollusca, Gasteropoda

Molluscs also include the Cephalopoda; Octopi, Squid, Nautiloids, extinct Ammonoids. A very cool group.

JimPivonka

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Silver_Back — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:48:10 PDT

All together now! Awww!

Silver_Back

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

AmishJohn — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:18:18 PDT

For disco colot without the toxins, choose the Mandarin Goby:

[www.fish.com]

AmishJohn

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

joetato — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:51:12 PDT

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: Good call Sigmund. The same thought occurred to me as well. :-D Now where are the Ultraviolet Legos?

joetato

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Eldragon — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:47:26 PDT

The real question is, do these sea snails secrete Adam?

Eldragon

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Klebert L. Hall — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:37:58 PDT

Plus, some of them can turn themselves inside out. Talk about a spa treatment...
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Calraigh — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:16:25 PDT

@RAHfanboy:

Laughing my ass off and rolling around on the floor laughing.
Awwww man.

Calraigh

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

RAHfanboy — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:00:34 PDT

Two nudibranches slime into a nudibar and order a drink. The nudibartender says "That'll be twenty clams. Say, we don't get many nudibranches in here." The one nudibranch looked at the other and then says to the nudibartender, "And at these prices you're not going to!"

RAHfanboy

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Miranda Kali (Desperate But Not Serious) — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:23:56 PDT

They look like cake decorations.
(Hmmm....there's an idea..)

Miranda Kali (Desperate But Not Serious)

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Pouncer — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:07:21 PDT

Freaky!

Pouncer

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

paqman — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:57:46 PDT

Ok, those first ones look like they're made of playdoh.

paqman

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Final — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:39:12 PDT

Slugs going to a Rave

Final

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

SigmundTheSeaMonster — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:37:19 PDT

Neon-Play-doh!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

psdbny — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:12:13 PDT

Even more amazing than their amazing little nudibodies is how the guy photographed them undersea with a little studio set up!
And he was kind enough to let them be cannibalistic before he used them for photos..

psdbny

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:07:20 PDT

Ah some of God's important work from his formative Sculpey at Summer Camp era.

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Jeff-Minor — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:57:35 PDT

It kinda makes the creatures from Wormulon look dull and very boring. Seriously, could alien life be any weirder? Planet of the Slugs."

Jeff-Minor

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Calraigh — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:48:23 PDT

Wow.These guys rock.They've better style than the whole red carpet at Cannes put together.

Calraigh

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Fwiffo — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:05:46 PDT

The last one looks a '70s pimp!

Fwiffo

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Stafford — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:01:10 PDT

@Slatz_Grobnik: Thank you to io9's new resident Appalachian style comedian. If I could properly textify a rimshot, I would.

Stafford

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Git Em SteveDave is starlost — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:00:14 PDT

@foolish-rain: So they would have a "Grinding Nemo" themed aquarium?

Git Em SteveDave is starlost

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Smeagol92055 — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:56:22 PDT

looks like I picked the wrong week to stop huffing glue.

Smeagol92055

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

zenpoet — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:55:35 PDT

@strangeasangels: Dear God. If you follow the link and go to the photo gallary, there is one called Thecacera pacifica that actually looks like Pikachu.

Now Nintendo can get sued by Mother Nature and Anascape!

zenpoet

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

zenpoet — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:52:34 PDT

@taxbaby: People have a favorite invertibrate? Mine would have to be Platyhelminthes. Why? Sounds like a super-villan name to me, and he is of course one of the most rudimentary creatures in which you can observe Cephelization.

Hows that for 10 year old bio class memories. That, and the fact that there exists a phallic mushroom are really all I remember.

@strangeasangels: it looks like a Nintendo character its so darn cute!

zenpoet

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Slatz_Grobnik — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:51:23 PDT

Beautiful, nude, and poisonous; who'd have thought that a sea slug could sum up my typical date?

Slatz_Grobnik

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Gann — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:50:49 PDT

The smilie guy at then end made me smile :)

These guys would be awesome in an aquarium if all the aforementioned problems were somehow avoidable.

Gann

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

foolish-rain — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:44:02 PDT

@ManchuCandidate: When people keep these guys as pets, they almost always end up sucked into a filter and pulped (the slugs, not the idiot aquarists). Of course there are worse fates for bad fish keepers.

foolish-rain

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

strangeasangels — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:43:42 PDT

The second one is adorable, but the last one is SO. FREAKING. CUTE.

She's wearing a little easter bonnet.

strangeasangels

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Metropolis — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:40:35 PDT

"....they are just skin, muscle, and organs sliding on trails of slime...."

Ah, aren't we all?

Beautiful photos

Metropolis

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

Log1c — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:40:00 PDT

@slmcdee: Those aren't racing stripes, they are "landing strips" if you know what I mean...

Log1c

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

foolish-rain — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:34:38 PDT

This is why I love IO9. Come for the Daily Spoilers, stay for the Sea Slugs! But, uh, based on the fourth pictures, shouldn't this be labeled NSFW?

foolish-rain

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

russdanger — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:33:01 PDT

Imagine how strange and revolting WE must seem to them...

russdanger

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

taxbaby — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:28:24 PDT

@ManchuCandidate: No worries; the morans (sic) would have to extensively handle or, um, bite them to be wounded. (Hopefully this is unlikely.)

taxbaby

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

taxbaby — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:26:39 PDT

@taxbaby: Scratch that. They're mollusks. I'll just head back to Marine Biology 101, then. Sorry for the bother.

taxbaby

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

slmcdee — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:23:11 PDT

Snails with racing stripes... who'da thunk it.

slmcdee

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

ManchuCandidate — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:19:42 PDT

Very interesting creatures. As much as I like seeing photos like this, I can't help but wonder that there will be morans (sic) who will want them in their aquariums and then later read in the Darwin Awards about some fool who died after being stung by his "pet" glow in the dark toxic slug.

ManchuCandidate

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

taxbaby — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:18:57 PDT

How cool that you guys picked this up. Nudibranchs are, without a doubt, my favorite invertebrates (with planarians coming in a close second). Love the smiley guy in the last picture.
But just to be clear, they're not ALL poisonous; it depends on what they eat, and they only recycle the toxins of the things they eat. They're also, um, not snails; while people call them 'sea slugs', they're not actually mollusks like snails, slugs or bivalves.

taxbaby

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

AhnyerKeester — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:13:04 PDT

Awe. Some.

AhnyerKeester

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

tamoko — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:10:34 PDT

@tamoko: polyp

tamoko

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

tamoko — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:09:40 PDT

These are absolutelt crazy, escpecially the two Nudibranches mating. I love the wierd polop like flower growths on their rumps. Cthulhu would be proud...

tamoko

The Savage Colors of Naked, Toxic Sea Snails

CMG — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:07:34 PDT

heh. nudi. sorry, i'm about 12 this morning. those are some cool-looking, toxin-secreting, sea slugs.

CMG