Marine Heterobranchia gastropods of the Azores Archipelago

Sea slugs mesmerize with their unparalleled beauty, boasting extravagant colours and unique body shapes. Beyond their aesthetic appeal, sea slugs exhibit remarkable biology and evolutionary processes, showcasing impressive regenerative abilities and producing unique chemical compounds for self-defence in the absence of protective shells. Some of these compounds have even demonstrated promising anti-cancer properties, positioning sea slugs as valuable subjects in biomedical research. Situated midway between the American and European continents, the Azorean islands are a living laboratory where species from both sides of the Atlantic coincide, while at the same time, the geographical isolation of the islands has fostered a unique biodiversity and the evolution of endemic species found nowhere else on Earth.