Sea slugs and aquatic plants have similar core features that allow both of them to acquire energy from light, but the sea slugs mechanism is far more involved and revolved around evolution. Elysia chlorotica, or the sea slug, have acquired the ability to conduct photosynthesis in their adult stages of life through their consumption of Vaucheria litorea. Vaucheria litorea are algae that are the primary diet of the developed sea slugs. Juvenile slugs acquire this ability when they ingest the algae and store the chloroplasts or plastids of the organisms in their digestive tracts. These plastids are absent of nuclei and can actually be maintained in the tracts for months in the cells. Essentially, the cells of the slug’s digestive tract undergo
