Can someone please tell me what this is? There were several in a small area, this is one of the "bigger" ones - they were all very small. They were out during the day, in a "muck" environment.
Thanks for the help!
Linda
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Mollusk? From Ambon, Indonesia
9 posts
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Some sort of Headshield Slug?Bubble Shell, Cephalaspidae? Perhaps look in Haminoeidae and Bullidae??
Cheers,
Jim.
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Super! Thanks very much ..... I am always on the lookout for any type of sea slug, and didn't realize this was one......
Linda
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I'm not sure Jim - the head just doesn't look right to me. Linda, I've sent your photo to a couple of mollusc colleagues for their opinion.
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I may be way off the mark...and probably am... but those black spots look like chromatophores to me... hence something in the cephalopod family. Baby cuttlefish?
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Yes I wondered about the head, could it be the oraltentacles/flaps are in a retracted state?
Linda do you have any other shots/angles? Certainly don't take my guess as definitive.
Your subject does have the same appearance as well as the slime trail seen in the other image.
Cheers,
Jim.
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Not a baby cephalopod, sorry!
Lindsey Groves, the museum's mollusc collection manager passed on the image to Angel Valdes, co-author with Terry Gosliner & Dave Behrens of "Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs & Sea Slugs". He confirmed that Linda's animal is what they called Haminoeid sp 2 in the book. One thing that keeps it out of the genus Haminoea is the extremely long tail which you can sorta see in Linda's pic & clearly in Indra's Nudipixel pic.
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Thanks very much Leslie! Some other images show the long tail better and I was wondering if it was laying eggs. Now I see it in the book....
Thanks to everyone for solving this mystery.
Regards, Linda
