Terra: Nudibranchs

Sometimes it's important to step back from the achievements and embarrassments of man to remind there's a sassy world out there.  "Terra" posts will embrace that concept and highlight something you probably don't know about the planet's eco-systems, from weather to fauna and flora.  Today, I'm going to cover the nudibranch.

Nudibranch.  Latin for nudis (naked).  Greek for brankhia (gills).  The name is accurate because they breathe with organs on their backs that act as external gills. 

Essentially, they are aquatic snails without a shell.  They are poisonous, armed with stinging cells and toxic secretions.  Most announce their poisonous capabilities with their strong colors.  Some make their own poison, but some take them from the animals they eat.  Yeah, they are carnivores.  So, they slime across the ocean floor to find food; if they eat a poisonous sponge, they store the poison and excrete it from their skin.  They'll even eat other nudibranchs.  These bad boys/girls cannibals are found at all depths of the ocean.  I say boys/girl because nudibranchs are hermaphroditic, so they have male and female reproductive organs.  (They rarely impregnate themselves.)  They vary in size from 1 to 24 inches (2 to 60cm) in length.  There are over 3,000 species of these guys/girls.