This is a god damn Pokemon.
Before you fantasize how this could be used in humans in the future, producing that single thought cost more energy than leaf sheep produce via photosynthesis in their lifetime - feeding of it requires energy efficiency any warm-blooded animal just isn’t suited for.
Still cute though.
they aren’t the only animal that does it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoplasty#Animals
Looks more like it has a cows face. Like in cartoons. Two tiny black eyes close together and big nostrils far apart
Pass. Charmander would wreck this guy.
RIght? Was literally in the middle of calling it a Pokemon when I saw this.
I doubt that seeing is how this thing lives in the ocean
Kinda but not quite:
Costasiella kuroshimae are capable of a physiological process called kleptoplasty, in which they retain the chloroplasts from the algae they feed on. Absorbing the chloroplasts from algae then enables them to indirectly perform photosynthesis.[6]
Source: Costasiella kuroshimae
The really interesting thing about costasiella kuroshimae is that its digestive system branches and goes up into all of those ‘leaves’, which is how the algae makes its way there to have its chloroplasts extracted.
I mean honestly? If you’re not even keeping full cells from the prey, I think we can give it to them. Lil guy, you can photosynthesize. No need to bother them with the asterisks.
And I’m pretty sure there are also jellyfish that live in symbyosis with algae that they carry along with them which photosynthesize, creating sugars for the jellyfish.
homo sapiens is known to use photosynthesis through symbiotic relationships with various grasses to create sugars, lipids, and proteins for itself
Eh, that’s a few dozen steps removed. By that standard, every herbivore “uses” photosynthesis.
These guys (coral & lichen too) use photosynthesis much more directly, completely encapsulating the algea and supporting it internally. It’s much closer to mitochondria.
Reminds me of Lichen! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen
kleptoplasty
I like how it’s appropriate to call it “-plasty” twice (first in the referring to chloroplasts sense, and then again in the plastic surgery sense).
Looks like the head gear piece my shaman wore in wow a long time ago
It looks like it was designed by Aardman Animations.
It’s Shaun the Slug!
How have I never heard of this before?!?
Cool, now I know how to call my spaceship in the next space game I’m gonna play.
