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Aplysia vaccaria, also known as the black sea hare and California black sea hare, is a species of extremely large sea slug, a marine, opisthobranch, gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae. [1] It is the largest sea slug species.
Sea hares are however sea snails with shells reduced to a small plate hidden between the parapodia, and some species are extremely large. The Californian black sea hare, Aplysia vaccaria is arguably the largest living gastropod species, and is certainly the largest living heterobranch gastropod .
Sea hares are mostly rather large, bulky creatures when adults. Juveniles are mainly unobserved on the shoreline. The biggest species, Aplysia vaccaria , can reach a length of 75 centimetres (30 in) and a weight of 14 kilograms (31 lb) and is arguably the largest gastropod species.
Aplysia (/ ə ˈ p l ɪ ʒ (i) ə /) is a genus of medium-sized to extremely large sea slugs, specifically sea hares, which are a kind of marine gastropod mollusk. These benthic herbivorous creatures can become rather large compared with most other mollusks.
The Florida Oceanographic Society says that because of their extensive neural circuits -- interconnecting neurons in the brain that pass messages -- sea hares are often utilized in medical research.
The largest shell-less gastropod is the giant black sea hare (Aplysia vaccaria) at 0.99 m (3.2 ft) in length and almost 14 kg (31 lb) in weight. The largest of the land snails is the giant African snail (Achatina achatina) at up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) and 35 cm (14 in) long. Cephalopods (Cephalopoda) (See Cephalopod size.)
The maximum length recorded for the California sea hare is 75 cm (30 in) when crawling, thus fully extended, although most adult specimens are half this size or smaller. Adult animals can weigh up to 7 kg (15 lb). [4] [5] A closely related species, Aplysia vaccaria, the black sea hare, can grow larger still.
This is the largest recent (as opposed to fossil) shelled gastropod, and the largest shelled gastropod by weight. (However, the largest shell-less gastropod or slug is Aplysia vaccaria, a giant sea hare known as the California black sea hare. The largest A. vaccaria has been measured