Get a load of this ingenuity – the Violet Sea Snail (Janthina janthina) has a paper thin and extremely fragile shell that would break easily if it were stuck under water. Realizing this, the violet sea snail thought it would be wise to instead spend its life floating on the surface of tropical oceans. To do so, it whips up a froth of bubbles with its foot and then covers them in a mucus to form a bubblicious raft.
All this floating works up an appetite, though, and when the snail gets hungry it goes after other floating organisms like the Portuguese Man o’ War and the By-the-wind Sailor. How about that, a carnivorous, rafting snail? Weird, right?
Well, they have another trick up their sleeves, too… they secrete a violet dye when disturbed. Scientists aren’t exactly sure what this dye does, per say, but they’re guessing predators aren’t too fond of the purple stuff. You can see the dye on this person’s hand, below:
