#scale worm

[polychaete-of-the-day]

Another Elvis worm for today's polychaete, the Peinaleopolynoe elvisi.

[noncompliantcyborg]

Peinaleopolynoe orphanae

aka the Elvis Worm

Woke up this #WormWednesday and decided I needed to make the worms I want to see in the world. This appliqué and embroidery friend is Peinaleopolynoe orphanae, a deep sea scaleworm. These worms can be found at whale falls, hydrothermal vents, and methane seeps - all some of my favorite habitats.

I wanted this piece to be really 3D and have playful tactile elements so I used some fuzzy fabric for the worm’s bristles and the scales are each hand cut out from a textile I created from ironing together felt, a glittery mesh, and a sheer holographic fabric. I attached the scales just at their bases where they are overlapped by other scales so you can rifle through them.

I used the reference image below from Hatch AS, Liew H, Hourdez S, Rouse GW (2020) to try and make this piece as life accurate as possible.

Let me know what you think and let me know what deep sea critters you think I should try to make next!

[beanthebugboi]

I will never understand people who don't like bugs- "the most horrifying animal on earth" "straight out of a horror movie" and it's a literal angel. You can't tell me this isn't what angels look like. That ETHEREAL STRANGENESS. That LUMINOUS SHIMMER. This creature is gorgeous what are you on about

[randomanimaloftheday]

Day 141#: Antarctic Scale Worm

Today's animal of the day is the Antarctic Scale Worm (Eulagisca gigantea)!

Photo credit: Smithsonian NMNH

Happy Halloween! Looks like we have a truly alien-like sea monster on our hands tonight! This species of scale worm lives in the deep, dark depths of the Antarctic Ocean and is named after the scale-like elytra that cover its body. These scales help protect the scale worm from predators, as well as help them to swim, though they spend much of their time on the sea floor since swimming takes a lot of energy for the larger members of the Polynoidae family. The Antarctic scale worm is one of the largest species of scale worms and can grow about 8 inches long. Their cream colored bodies are split up into around 40 different segments, and each segment can have about 15 pairs of golden elytra!

Photo credit: Smithsonian NMNH

These Annelids have three antennae and two pairs of eyes that they use to sense prey, and a purple retractable mouth with a terrifying set of jaws that they use to grasp onto their victims. The exact diet of this species is currently unknown, since their remote habitat makes it difficult to study them, but it can be assumed that, like other scale worms, they feed on crustaceans, urchins, sea stars, mollusks, and other species of marine worms. The nervous system of these marine invertebrates is quite different compared to mammals. They have a centralized group of neurons, called a cerebral ganglion, in their first body segment, with a ladder-like structure of nerves running down the rest of their body.

[aquatic-dusk]

cruise day on the r/v coral sea!! box corer brought up some very… amusing little creatures along with a delicious helping of sediment (i stg this is not nsfw it is a fat innkeeper worm look it up)

@snakest1cks

[marinebioblr]

These are scale worms - a recently discovered species that inhabits whalefalls and hydrothermal vents. While undeniably gorgeous it has also been observed that these guys will actively fight each other for resources; the arrows in the top photo indicate missing chunks of the scale plates, though damage is even more noticeable on the bottom photo. I got the pics from MBARI, check them out for more info, or @RebeccaRHelm on Twitter!

[typhlonectes]

New Worm Species with Jewel-Like Scales Discovered in Deep Ocean Darkness    

A mysterious video shows worms fighting and dancing the "jitterbug." 

Some of the most brilliant colors in the animal kingdom belong to worms that live in the dark and have no eyes.

Researchers described four new species of deep-sea worms in a paper published today in the journal ZooKeys. They have been collecting the worms for years, but only recently teased apart their species relationships using genetics.

"Our nickname for them was Elvis worms because they look like sequins on an Elvis jumpsuit," said Greg Rouse, a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

The new species are Peinaleopolynoe goffrediae, named for marine biologist Shana Goffredi; P. mineoi, named for the father of biotechnologist Chrysa Mineo, who helped fund the research; P. orphanae, named for geobiologist Victoria Orphan; and P. elvisi, whose name is self-explanatory. They belong to a group known as scale worms, distant relatives of earthworms that are covered in large, overlapping plates...

Read more: https://www.insidescience.org/news/new-worm-species-jewel-scales-discovered-deep-ocean-darkness

[animalids]

Giant scale worm (Eulagisca gigantea)

Photo by J. C. Mendoza