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Have you seen the Christmas tree worm (Spirobranchus giganteus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onNov 25, 2024

Photos thanks to Oceana & Scuba!

For polychaete day, here's a previous annelid post but edited to only have the polychaetes, some fun facts for you! :)

Sea mouse!

This luminous polychaete worm lives several thousand meters deep on the ocean floor, and sports these extremely light-reflecting scales! Each one is hollow and lined inside with hexagonal cylinders which reflect nearly 100% of the light that hits them. The sea mouse's quill-scales create the only documented case of a "complete spectrum photonic crystal" in an organism, that is, a nanostructure that alters the light entering them and can create the whole spectrum of light. It is thought that the quill-scales are so light reflective as to deter predators or to make the sea mouse's silhouette harder to see.

Bone-eating worms!

Come on tumblr, you love whalefalls, right? These worms are an important part of the whalefall ecosystem, boring into the bones with acid to feed on them! These peculiar animals lack a stomach and a mouth, instead relying on symbiotic bacteria that break down the bone material, after which they suck up the nutrients with "roots"! The red things you see above are the female worms' gills, as the males are in fact microscopic and live inside the females. These worms are valuable in returning every bit of nutrients back into the biochemical cycle!

Pompeii worm!

This deep sea worm is an extremophile if you've ever seen one, it also inhabits hydrothermal vents. They build a tube around themselves and seemingly shield themselves from the elements inside the tube with the help of a "fluffy" coat of sulfur-eating bacteria. What makes them especially fascinating is that their tail end comes to contact with temperatures of up to 80 °C (176°F) while their gills collect oxygen from the outside water that's only 22 °C (72°F)! 60 degrees Celsius of temperature difference to an animal only 13 cm in length, that's bonkers!

Gossamer worms!

These free-swimming polychaetes produce a yellow bioluminescent glow from the appendages at the sides of their body, which is unusual among animals! Gossamer worms have a unique style of swimming from other polychaetes, as they lack many bristles at the ends of their appendages and also the mesenteries in between each body segment. Still they swim, with great flexibility, speed, and maneuverability! It turns out that they retract and extend each appendage to cause differences in drag, causing a wave to undulate through the whole body, which in turn makes their thrust power even stronger. They might serve as inspiration for aquatic robots in the future!

#polychaete #polychaete worm #annelids #aquatic

there's this strange sort of beast that's inspired arguments on pinterest, and I was wondering if you or your other followers could identify it. personally I am of the opinion that it is some variety of Leggéd Worm

It's marine, not a bug. I'm no sort of expert on marine life but it looks like a polychaete worm to me. No idea what species since there are thousands. The "legs" aren't used for walking but rather for swimming.

#my-t4t-romance #submission #marine #not a bug #polychaete worm #i'm assuming

oh woah, guess i forgot to post this - commission i did last year for Noegenhed of his fantastic critters! :D SO fun working with novel anatomy like this.

#sketch #sketchpage #furry #creature #polychaete worm #avian #noegenhed #commission