The Blue Dragon (Glaucus Alanticus)

May 21, 2023 News

=Interesting creatures=

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Given the name of a mythical creature, the Blue Dragon (Glaucus Atlanticus) also known as nudibranchs, is a type of mollusk or sea slug that spends its entire life floating upside down on the surface of tropical waters throughout the world-mainly the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. This creature is no more than three centimeters long and is able to stay afloat and not sink because of its unique ability to store air bubbles in its stomach.

A blue dragon floating in the ocean

Like the name suggests, its blue in colour with a greyish backside but its colourful appearance is not just for beauty. Instead, it serves as a camouflage to protect the creature from flying and sea predators. The bright colours, according to marine biologists, is an example of a phenomenon called countershading.

The bright blue underside of the creature helps it blend in with waters’ surface making it almost impossible for the flying predator to tell the difference while its grayish backside helps it to blend in with the ocean when spotted from below.

Blue dragons, however, do not only depend on its bright coloured body for protection. These animals feed on venomous sea creatures such as the Portuguese Man-O’-war and can ingest the toxic cells from the prey to make itself toxic too.

Blue dragons store the toxic cells from it venomous prey within its finger –like appendages which uses to sting in self-defence. A sting from a blue dragon is even harmful to humans and can lead to intense pain, nausea, vomiting, acute allergic contact dermatitis and post-inflammatory inflammation.

Another interesting fact about blue dragons is that they are simultaneous hermaphrodite. This means that each blue dragon carries both male and female reproductive organs.

After a pair mates, they will lay a string of about 16 eggs in the water which will take about three days to hatch into a larvae.

Source of information: (https://oceana.org/marine-life/blue-glaucus/), (https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the-week-blue-dragon/)

Given the name of a mythical creature, the Blue Dragon (Glaucus Atlanticus) also known as nudibranchs, is a type of mollusk or sea slug that spends its entire life floating upside down on the surface of tropical waters throughout the world-mainly the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. This creature is no more than three centimeters long and is able to stay afloat and not sink because of its unique ability to store air bubbles in its stomach.

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Blue dragon, Interesting creatures, ocean, Shervin Belgrave, tropical

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