A hybrid plant-animal

Hybrid.
Plant + animal genes.
Naturally occurring, not engineered in a lab.

I've previously blogged about nudibranchs emphasizing their spectacular colors. Recently New Scientist reported that sea slugs are able incorporate chloroplasts of algae into their bodies and use these plant products to convert sunlight into energy.

Young E. chlorotica fed with algae for two weeks, could survive for the rest of their year-long lives without eating...

Even more amazing is that the sea slugs also incorporate genes from the algae into their own DNA:

They then turned their attention to the sea slug's own DNA and found one of the vital algal genes was present. Its sequence was identical to the algal version, indicating that the slug had probably stolen the gene from its food...

In another surprising development, the researchers found the algal gene in E. chlorotica's sex cells, meaning the ability to maintain functional chloroplasts could be passed to the next generation...

To me this is mind-boggling. A hybrid plant-animal. Before encountering this report today I would not even have considered such a thing to be possible. Amazing.