The rare and colorful sea slug known as Babakina anadoni has been discovered by a diver off the coast of the Scilly Isles, an archipelago located in the southwestern part of England.
Allen Murray, a volunteer with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, found this sea slug while participating in National Marine Week. He discovered it while diving near Mellinggan, an uninhabited rocky island in the Cornwall archipelago.
Babakina anadoni sea slug. (Image: Mail)
The sea slug measures only 2 cm in length, smaller than a pinky finger, and has a structure resembling a layer of feathery, jewel-like covering. The outer layer is very soft, featuring colors of purple, yellow, and orange, and contains the animal’s intestines, which may also help it warn off predators.
This species was first described in 1979, initially classified under the genus Rioselleolis, but later reclassified into the genus Babakina. Their diet mainly consists of small creatures related to corals and jellyfish.
Their diet mainly consists of small creatures related to corals and jellyfish. (Image: Mail)
Babakina has only been found a few times in the warm waters around the western coast of Spain and further south in the Atlantic Ocean. Its appearance in a new area could be attributed to climate change or recent increases in temperature.
Sharing with Mail, Murray stated that he initially did not recognize it as a rare species: “I only knew that I had never seen this creature before. When I asked the people on the boat, no one recognized it either.”
However, after someone in Murray’s group recalled seeing a similar image of the creature on Facebook, they continued to research and confirmed that the animal they had found was indeed Babakina anadoni. Murray’s photograph of the colorful sea slug marks the first confirmation of this species appearing in England.
