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For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

author:Agent in the box

In the animal kingdom, hermaphroditism seems to have become a consensus, and it is difficult to believe that there is a hermaphrodite creature in the ocean.

This creature is called sea slugs, and they can exchange roles in order to reproduce, and the mating organs are still disposable, which is very magical.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Different species of sea slugs have different shapes

Sea slugs in the ocean

Sea slugs, also known as sea hares, originally belonged to the conch species, in the later evolution of the sea slugs faded its shell, only with a soft body to live in the ocean.

The outer shell did not disappear out of thin air, but evolved into an inner shell, which is fragile and transparent in color.

However, this is also in line with the characteristics of sea slugs that are easy to change color, they are usually based on the algae and other substances they eat, which can also avoid the damage of natural enemies to a certain extent, even if there is no protection of the shell.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Sea slugs like small hedgehogs

In addition, in the face of predators, sea slugs will also secrete a purple liquid, which acts similarly to octopus ink spray, except that the purple liquid contains toxins, which can cause some damage to predators, and in severe cases may directly die.

Sea slugs are also very clever when dealing with predators that have to be faced, showing off their irritating parts for predators to eat only.

After tasting the "weird" hormones secreted in them, these predators will discard them, and many predators will lose interest in sea slugs, except for "hungry" predators.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Sea Slugs: I have a lot of escape skills

Sea slugs that lose a small part will look for a quiet place and wait to grow, which is nothing for sea slugs.

It is no wonder that sea slugs do not need a hard shell, in the environment, they have already evolved a unique set of skills, they broke free of the shackles of the shell, using a soft and light body to freely travel through the ocean.

Sea slugs prefer but are not limited to living in warm waters, and are found in most marine areas, including coastal areas of the mainland.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Lamb-like sea slugs

They can even live in the 5,000-meter deep sea area where fish are inaccessible, and they can be found in the cold Arctic Circle.

Sea slugs are not only large and widely distributed, but they also have their own set of skills in mating and reproduction.

Sea slugs mate

The sea slug belongs to the female symbiotic species, as the name suggests, female symbiosis is that it can be regarded as both a female and a male, so there will be a sea slug in mating, role swapping.

With such a peculiar nature, in the way of mating and reproduction, sea slugs are still very flowery, and really play their hermaphroditonic characteristics to fully play out.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

At this time, the sea slugs resembled a small blue seahorse

In the sea, when two sea slugs meet, the two sides reach the conditions of sexual maturity, mating can begin, one side takes the lead to become female, and the other party actively shows male characteristics.

After the end of the round, the two sides will begin the second round of development, this time, the male side becomes female, the female side becomes male, the roles are reversed, and the sea slugs are really clear about the breeding of species.

But it's not uncommon for two sea slugs to mate because they want to play more floral.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Do you want the lamb in front of the cactus?

For example, a dozen sea slugs mate in a row, and after a period of time, they will adjust their direction, and the mating of swarms can often last for hours, or even more, for several days.

Don't look at the small body of the sea slug, but it can really be described as "full of energy".

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Sea slugs and their companions

Of course, sea slugs are not really playing "flowers", after all, they have no thinking, can only rely on instinct, so the purpose of mating is to fully combine sperm with egg cells and increase the chance of fertilized eggs.

Although mating takes a long time, sea slugs lay their eggs without any ambiguity, and after a few hours of mating, sea slugs will lay their young eggs, and some even begin to lay eggs during the mating process.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

The eggs of sea slugs are wrapped in a sticky object, which is the protein secreted by sea slugs that can both protect the eggs and provide an adaptable environment for the eggs, which are arranged into a long "rope", which is more than ten meters short and hundreds of meters long.

There are 100,000 sea slugs eggs on an 18-meter-long "rope", which is an astonishing number.

However, the survival rate of these eggs is not high, and sea slugs themselves are difficult to catch by predators, but the eggs have no resistance, and for many predators, they prefer to eat eggs rather than adults.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Sea Slugs: Thanks to predators for being picky eaters

Surviving sea slugs mature at 2 to 3 months and begin a new round of reproduction, no matter how predators eat, sea slugs' strong spawning ability and low-cost production method make them indispensable in the sea food chain.

In the ocean, sea slugs eggs are food for many fish, and even when some medium-sized and large fish cannot prey, they will use sea slugs eggs to supplement protein.

Bizarre reproductive organs

To say that the most amazing thing about the sea slugs is its reproductive organs, for the sea slugs, they seem to have a "clean habit" for reproduction, after mating is completed, the sea slugs will give up their male reproductive organs.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

This way of discarding male reproductive organs is so that they can be "clean" at the next mating, and there are barbs on the female reproductive organs.

According to scientists, the purpose of the barb is to remove the sperm that had previously mated, which failed to bind to the egg cells and remained in them for no purpose.

After a single mating, the sea slugs shed their genitals in about 20 minutes, and the sea slugs will hardly accept mating until the new ones grow.

And as long as the head is still there, the sea slugs can grow other lost parts of their bodies.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

This sounds too scary, like a monster in a science fiction movie, breaking their limbs and still growing rapidly.

This is not a science fiction film, but a real existence.

In a research laboratory in Japan in 2021, a sea slug with only a head grew its complete body in a few days.

The researchers in the lab were shocked that for some single-structured organisms, it may not be a big deal to grow back, but sea slugs are species of organisms with complex structures.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

At this time, the sea slugs are like a small colorful crab

The body structure of such creatures has its own unique rigor, according to the reason, the possibility of the body regeneration of the sea slugs is almost zero, but the sea slugs break this zero probability and become the only complex structure organism that can grow its own body.

Researchers have launched an in-depth investigation of sea slugs, believing that the secret of the "immortality" of sea slugs will soon be revealed.

In addition to the peculiar breeding characteristics of sea slugs, the value of sea slugs in various aspects is also gradually developing.

The value of sea slugs

In coastal areas, people call the "rope" of the eggs laid by sea slugs "sea vermicelli", and people salvage the "sea vermicelli" ashore for drying to obtain dried products from sea slugs.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Pink "Little Sea Hare"

This dried product can be eaten as noodles, high nutritional value, contains 30% protein, 9% compounds and some inorganic salts and vitamins, very delicious.

Sea slugs themselves can be made into sauces, which coastal residents call "sea rabbit sauce" and are loved by coastal residents.

In medicine, scientists extracted a compound from sea slugs, and after repeated trials, it was found that this compound can kill cancer cells and has excellent effect.

For breeding, sea slugs that can swap roles, mating organs are disposable?

Terrible cancer cells

The most important thing is that the compounds extracted from the sea slugs will not harm normal cells, and if the compounds extracted from the sea slugs are studied thoroughly enough in the future, the treatment of human cancer can be described as a breakthrough development.

Therefore, when observing the wonders of the animal kingdom, people should not forget to learn empirical knowledge in animals.

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