Posted on 11/18/2015 7:02:36 AM PST by ETL
Some say it's like something out of a science fiction movie, others say it's from another world. But the bizarre and dangerous sea creature a woman discovered washed ashore at Broadbeach along the Gold Coast of Australia is actually a blue dragon.
Lucinda Fry came across the creepy, electric-blue sea slug in Queensland and captured video of the little sea creature, which Daily Mail Australia posted: [video at link]
The nudibranch is not that big, measuring 1.2 inches at maturity, but it packs a punch.
"I have handled them before and wasn't stung, but I would not recommend anyone pick them up because they can have a painful sting," Professor Kylie Pitt of Griffith University told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
The sea creature was said to be following its favorite food source, bluebottles, also known as Portuguese man o' wars that have been blown onto Gold Coast shorelines by easterly winds. The blue dragons eat the stingers of the bluebottles.
"Instead of digesting the sting cells, they store them on the outside of their body," Pitt told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
Incidentally, the scientific name of the blue dragon is Glaucus atlanticus. But by any name, this sea creature is a strange one.
Nuh Nuh. - Twinkie’s a woman. - Fang is a man.
oopsies:)
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