Results: Marine Animals Named After Food

Lettuce Sea Slug - Elysia crispata, or the lettuce sea slug, has a ruffled exterior that is reminiscent of a head of iceberg lettuce, especially when it takes on a greenish hue. These lettuce-like folds are actually fleshy protrusions known as parapodia, which are exceptionally frilly in this species. This unique animal is both heterotrophic because it eats various kinds of algae and autotrophic because it retains the chloroplasts from the algae it eats, storing them in its parapodia and using them to later make its own food. Do you like iceburg lettuce?

Chocolate Chip Sea Star - Protoreaster nodosus, also known as the chocolate chip sea star, is named for its brown spines that resemble chocolate chips, and they appear to come in both milk chocolate and dark chocolate varieties. Although these spines are meant to scare off predators by looking sharp and dangerous, they may have the opposite effect on humans as they make these animals look like starfish-shaped cookies. Do you like chocolate chip cookies?

Fried Egg Jellyfish - Cotylorhiza tuberculata, or the fried egg jellyfish, is a resident of the Mediterranean Sea that truly resembles a fried egg served sunny side up. Its bright orange dome looks like a pristine yolk resting on top of a disk of egg white. Much larger than an actual egg, these jellies can grow to be more than 13 inches in diameter, but they are often less than half a foot wide. Do you like fried eggs?