Team DailyPedia
Australia. Lucinda Fry saw something wriggling in the sand which was washed up on the shore at Broadbent beach. She then took her camera to film it and discovered that the creature was unlike anything she had seen before. It was neon blue in color and had an alien-like appearance.
The strange-looking creature was, in fact, a Blue Dragon also known as glaucus atlanticus. It was a rare sea slug that feeds on blue bottle jellyfish and packs a sting of its own.
Mirror explains that while jellyfish have a powerful sting that can injure humans, the Blue Dragon cannot be harmed by its poison.
Marine life expert Kylie Pitt from Griffith University in Queensland said that the glaucus are “really weird.” She explained that they “eat blue bottles and they float upside down and move around using the water’s surface tension.”
Blue Dragons are reportedly found in temperate and tropical waters. They grow around three to four centimeters in length. Although they eat the stinging jellyfish, they do not consume the sting cells. Instead, they store these cells outside their body.
Pitt said she has handled them before and wasn’t stung. “But I would not recommend anyone pick them up because they can have a painful sting.”
Featured image via Sylke Rohrlach/Flickr
