Pretty, Yet Painful: Rare ‘Blue Dragons’ Wash Up on Texas Beach
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Pretty, yet painful: Rare 'blue dragons' wash up on Texas beach - National:
Dragons exist - though they're a bit smaller than you might have imagined.
A stunningly beautiful and bizarre little sea creature has Texas wildlife experts on edge after several beach-goers reported finding so-called "blue dragons" washed up at the Padre Island National Seashore in recent days.
The extremely rare little creatures look like electric-blue dragons "soaring" through the water. However, they're actually a curious form of sea slug known as Glaucus atlanticus that swims upside down to show off its colours. And while they don't breathe fire, they do pack a nasty sting that they borrow from their favourite food.
The 3 cm long creatures prey on the Portuguese man-o-war, a jellyfish-like organism with painful stingers. The blue dragon basically kills man-o-wars and steals their stinging toxins, then re-purposes those toxins into a defensive weapon.
That means it can surprise a curious human with a powerfully jellyfish-like sting if it's disturbed.
[...] The park issued a warning on its Facebook page last week after several more blue dragon sightings on the shore.
"Don't let their size fool you," the park wrote. "They have a defence worthy of the name dragon."
The post explains that blue dragons move the man-o-war stingers onto their "fingers," which allows them to deliver a sting "more painful than a man-o-wars."
"If you see a dragon in the park, be amazed as they are a rare find, but also keep your distance," the park said.
Several people have posted photos of the sea slugs, which are also known as blue angels, since they started washing up in Texas.
No injuries have been reported to date.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.