Question: What is your favourite sea creature and is it because its rare or helps with medicine?

Alison Hughes answered on 12 Jun 2018:

My favourite sea creature is probably Hexabranchus sanguineus, known as the Spanish dancer nudibranch. Nudibranchs are like large sea slugs but are bright in colour. The Spanish dancer nudibranch moves through the water twirling like a Flamenco dancer, and are bright red in colour! They are really beautiful. Nudibranchs also produce a lot chemicals that can be used to treat different diseases. When I worked in Florida, I studied Austrodoris kerguelenensis, a type of nudibranch only found in Antarctica and named after the Kerguelen islands in Antarctica. The person who worked on the project before me, found a new chemical that had never been discovered before!