Sea angel

Clione limacina · The sea angel is a swimming sea slug that lives in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean.

Also called Naked sea butterfly, Common clione.

Sea angel
Photo: Kevin Raskoff, Hidden Ocean 2005 Expedition: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration., Public domain
Sea angel
Photo: Olivier Dugornay (IFREMER, Pôle Images, Centre Bretagne - ZI de la Pointe du Diable - CS 10070 - 29280 Plouzané, France), CC BY 4.0
Sea angel
Photo: Olivier Dugornay (IFREMER, Pôle Images, Centre Bretagne - ZI de la Pointe du Diable - CS 10070 - 29280 Plouzané, France), CC BY 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumMollusca
ClassGastropoda
OrderPteropoda
FamilyClionidae
GenusClione
SpeciesClione limacina

Where it lives

Cold waters of the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic, from the surface to below 500 m.

Fun facts

  • A sea angel can survive for one year without food.
  • Sea angels swallow their prey whole, pulling the soft body of a sea butterfly right out of its shell.
  • A sea angel's mouth has three pairs of tentacle-like buccal cones that grab the shell of its prey.
  • Sea angels swim by beating two wings, and they have two gravity-sensing organs that help them stay upright using their tail.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).