# What creature is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789 "2020-05-31T14:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/1 "2020-05-31T14:09:46Z")
What is [this green crawling creature?](https://www.gif-vif.com/amazing-nature-3/?fbrefresh=23&fbclid=IwAR1M_JMKuPVsC6GbUOAOwoke6XS_0-3UuT3Us4Dl8svHzz8vS-yN-tjfw90) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/2 "2020-05-31T14:11:07Z")
Some type of Nudibranch? ETA: [Yep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYKim1OHSYA). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/3 "2020-05-31T14:11:24Z")
Wow. I want to know too. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/4 "2020-05-31T14:12:39Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Some type of Nudibranch? My first guess but nudibranches are just hallucinatory slugs, they don’t have legs or mouths like that. Do they? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/5 "2020-05-31T14:20:59Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Some type of Nudibranch? > > ETA: [Yep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYKim1OHSYA). Thank you! Now it needs to get bigafied and star in a SyFy Channel movie. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/6 "2020-05-31T14:33:56Z")
Nah, SyFy doesn’t go for the nudi shows. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/7 "2020-05-31T14:54:10Z")
The OP definitely needs to dehumidify his basement. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/8 "2020-05-31T15:44:18Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > My first guess but nudibranches are just hallucinatory slugs, they don’t have legs or mouths like that. Do they? Apparently they mostly have tentacles. And also I assume Cthulhu can’t be too far behind. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/9 "2020-05-31T16:43:31Z")
[Here’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB6Wuw1SyrU) a similar one, identified as _Melibe viridis_. [Here’s another video](https://www.livescience.com/56841-carnivorous-sea-slug-video.html) with more information. _Melibe_ has an expandable “oral hood” used to engulf prey. The appendages on the back are not limbs, but structures found in nudibranchs called [cerata.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerata) In some nudibranchs they function in respiration or digestion, but[in this genus they are capable of undergoing autotomy](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160104081437.htm) (like the tails of some lizards), being shed as a predator distraction defense. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/10 "2020-05-31T16:55:42Z")
This is either incredibly cute if it’s 1cm long, or incredibly terrifying if it’s 1m long. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/11 "2020-05-31T18:50:05Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > This is either incredibly cute if it’s 1cm long, or incredibly terrifying if it’s 1m long. Per [Wiki,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melibe_viridis) it reaches a length of 140 mm, or 5.5 inches, so not that terrifying if you don’t happen to be a clam worm. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/12 "2020-06-01T04:31:37Z")
This is why I want to wash my broccoli. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/13 "2020-06-01T11:52:57Z")
As an undergrad I worked in a neurophysiology lab that studied _[Hermissenda crassicornis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermissenda_crassicornis)_ photoreceptors and learning. I “trained” the animals to avoid light, then removed their central ganglia and recorded photoreceptor action potentials. They are cool little animals. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/14 "2020-06-02T23:25:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > … then removed their central ganglia … Did they not resent this? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/15 "2020-06-03T00:27:17Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Did they not resent this? Not after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/16 "2020-06-03T04:54:52Z")
Were they still cool little animals after being lobotomized? ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/17 "2020-06-03T08:50:12Z")
WE are NOT skipping over the rough sex part for the squeamish - “…And for a nudibranch, that can involve amputating a disposable penis or stabbing its mates in the brain with genital darts…” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/18 "2020-06-03T11:16:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Were they still cool little animals after being lobotomized? Actually, they were beyond lobotomized, their “brains” were actually removed. A surgical blade was used to decapitate the animal and the body discarded. Under a dissecting microscope the head was pinned to agar in a dish. The prep was then soaked in a protease solution. Following a rinse with seawater, only the brain and photoreceptors remained. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/19 "2020-06-03T13:27:38Z")
I wasn’t sure if that was underwater or on land until I saw the youtube video. It’s a lot more terrifying if you think it’s on land. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789/20 "2020-06-03T13:34:03Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Actually, they were beyond lobotomized, their “brains” were actually removed. A surgical blade was used to decapitate the animal and the body discarded. Under a dissecting microscope the head was pinned to agar in a dish. The prep was then soaked in a protease solution. Following a rinse with seawater, only the brain and photoreceptors remained. So, how do we know that we’re not just a Nudibranch brain in a beaker being electronically stimulated to think we’re humans in a normal existence? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-creature-is-this/854789.md?page=2)