14 DAY TRIAL // The stunning creature pictured above is commonly referred to as a sea butterfly. However, wildlife researchers explain that, rather than having a lot of things in common with butterflies, such creatures are in fact closely related to snails.
While the latter move about their environment by creeping along the ground, sea butterflies make use of their muscular foot in order to move through water, Daily Mail reports.
Such creatures are known to the scientific community as pteropods. Their long-term survival is currently threatened by phenomena such as ocean acidification and climate change.
Both the picture above and several others of its kind were taken by research zoologists Karen Osborn.
The scientist reportedly caught the creatures while scuba diving in the waters just off the coast of Mexico and California and later on brought them aboard her research ship.