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Sea Angel | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Sea Angel

Clione limacina

GastropodaOpen cold-water ocean column, from near-surface waters to several hundred metres depth, often associated with sea ice margins

Field profile

Clione limacina is a small, shell-less swimming sea snail, often called a sea angel, that propels itself with two wing-like parapodia. It is a specialist predator that feeds almost exclusively on a single group of shelled relatives, the sea butterflies of the genus Limacina.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2026-09-13

Sea Angel

This sea snail eats only one shelled prey

The sea angel Clione limacina hunts almost nothing but shelled pteropods called sea butterflies, extracting them from their shells with a retractable set of hooked buccal cones rather than a radula alone.

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