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Pretty, Yet Painful: Rare ‘Blue Dragons’ Wash Up on Texas Beach

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the slugging-away dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

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.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Fishscene on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:25PM (3 children)

    by Fishscene (4361) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:25PM (#993351)

    Here's a picture: https://shawglobalnews.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/sea-ssl.jpg [wordpress.com]

    --
    I know I am not God, because every time I pray to Him, it's because I'm not perfect and thankful for what He's done.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:41PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:41PM (#993359)

    >> "Don't let their size fool you," the park wrote. "They have a defence worthy of the name dragon."

    If these critters were Australian, they would kill you and your entire family, and then hunt down your co-workers and kill them too.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:44PM (1 child)

      by DECbot (832) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:44PM (#993360) Journal

      And if they were Japanese, they would trample Tokyo and battle Godzilla.

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:00PM

        by DannyB (5839) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:00PM (#993399) Journal

        If they were Crew Dragons instead of Blue Dragons, they would . . . ?

        --
        Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:27PM (#993403)

      or just do everything their government and "scientists" told them to do.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:57PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:57PM (#993372) Journal

    A stunningly beautiful and bizarre little sea creature . . . basically kills man-o-wars and steals their stinging toxins, then re-purposes those toxins into a defensive weapon.

    I wonder if that was an accident or on porpoise?

    --
    Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?

    • (Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Tuesday May 12 2020, @09:35PM (1 child)

      by gtomorrow (2230) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @09:35PM (#993491)

      Wow...DannyB...that was really bad...even for you. 😆❤️

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:55PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:55PM (#993395)

    Everybody knows blue dragons breathe lightning

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by stretch611 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:38PM

      by stretch611 (6199) on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:38PM (#993410)

      Came here to mention that... but AC beat me to it.

      After all, it is red dragons that breathe fire. (and for the record... green dragons breathe a poison gas cloud; and these tiny critters seem to have a poison attack.)

      Can you tell that I am a geek that has been playing D&D for 35 years now? (and still play using Roll20.net which makes gaming possible even with coronavirus.)

      --
      Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
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