Sea Slug TwinsFind the two slugs that are alike and circle them.

p r e s e n t e d b y a d i v i s i o n o f L e a r n i n g A - ZScience a-z

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All living things need food. They use it for energy to live and grow. How do living things get food? Animals must search and hunt for their food. They eat plants or other animals. Plants use energy from the Sun to make their own food.

So animals can’t make their own food, right? This is not true anymore. Scientists have found one animal that can make its own food, just like a plant. It’s a green sea slug that looks like a leaf in the water.

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See Solar Sea Slugs on page 2

Numbers 3 and 4 are alike.

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Solar-Powered Sea SlugsBy Ron Fridell

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Elysia chlorotica

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Art Prompt

Some people think sea slugs are the most beautiful creatures in the sea. Look at these sea slugs. Then imagine a new kind of sea slug and draw it. Make it interesting, colorful, and beautiful.

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Solar Sea SlugsContinued from page 1

• Most sea slugs are

small. They can be shorter than your little finger. The biggest ones are only as big as a football.

• Sea slugs eat sea plants, such as algae and plankton. They also eat sea animals, such as snails.

• Sometimes sea slugs

eat pointy animals. The sharp points stick out of the sea slug’s body and protect it.

• Sea slugs do not live very long. The smallest sea slugs live for only six weeks. The biggest ones live for about a year.

• Sea slugs live in oceans all over the world. They live in cold and warm water. They live in shallow and deep water.

Write About This!

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Sea Slug Facts

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Some plants look like animals, and some animals resemble plants. Are these organisms plants or animals?

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Cathy K

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What if you could use the Sun’s energy to make food inside yourself? Write a story or poem about how your life would change.

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There are thousands of different kinds of sea slugs. Many of them have lots of colors and designs on their bodies. Some even have body parts that look like horns. They use them to taste and smell in the water.

At first, this amazing animal does eat. It eats tiny green things that can make their own food. Then the sea slug can stop eating. Now it can make its own food, too. What a special sea slug!

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They’re both animals!