Clione – Sea Angels

There are angels on this planet!

Before you get down on your knees to thank God – those creatures are only called sea angels. In fact they are snails. Snails that have lost their shell during their growth and are swimming in the ocean.

Cliones are even just one family in the clade gymnosomata, but who cares? They are beautiful!

As beautiful as they are, little is known about this small creatures, the biggest ones only grow to 5cm size maximum.
In the winter the biggest species lives around the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where they live the rest of the year is unknown. Other, smaller species of this family can be found everywhere in the ocean, even in the tropes.

The name sea angels comes from the “wings” they use to “fly” through the water, up to a top speed of 10cm per second. Mostly they just slowly move around in the upper 20m of water though.

Sea Angels are hermaphrodites (Angels can be every gender, right?) and only hunt “sea butterflies” (Angels have an exclusive taste, right?).

The green part of their body contains a toxic, so you should not eat them. But who would eat angels?

I really want to see them one day.