AYYYY SEA BUNNY

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Meet the cutest sea slug ever?

It’s round, and fluffy and has wiggly little ears! Sort of. These little sea creatures, affectionately dubbed “sea bunnies” have recently become social media celebrities. They’re actually sea slugs, and belong to the wild group of mollusks called nudibranchs. The bunny slug species is Jorunna parva, and was first described by the renowned Japanese marine biologist Kikutaro Baba. The fluffy white sea bunnies are primarily found off the coast of Japan. Jorunna parva have also been found in the Indian Ocean and off the coasts of the the Philippines.

As for the “ears”—over on Deep Sea News, Dr. Craig McClain explains that those are really rhinophores, organs that help the sea slug sense chemicals dissolved in the water and also detect changes in currents. “In the group of nudibranchs that contains the sea bunnies, the rhinophores are particularly 'fuzzy' allowing for more surface area for this reception to occur on.”
All nudibranchs are hermaphrodites, which means they produce both sperm and eggs but cannot fertilize themselves.
Jorunna parva have a number of different colorings, and are often yellow with black specks and rhinophores. Some can even be a bit greenish. McClain points out that there is some debate in the scientific community over whether or not the different color variations represent separate species.