Bizarre sea slug is half plant, half animal

This is fascinating stuff - evolution at work. Sounds like some of the theories about how eukaryotes first emerged. Check it out:

It looks like any other sea slug, aside from its bright green hue. But the Elysia chlorotica is far from ordinary: it is both a plant and an animal, according to biologists who have been studying the species for two decades.

Not only does E. chlorotica turn sunlight into energy -- something only plants can do -- it also appears to have swiped this ability from the algae it consumes.

 

Native to the salt marshes of New England and Canada, these sea slugs use contraband chlorophyll-producing genes and cell parts called chloroplasts from algae to carry out photosynthesis, says Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

 

That genetic material has since been passed down to the next generation, eliminating the need to consume algae for energy.

Full article.