Bizarre Marine Worm Resembles a Christmas Ornament from Hell
This Worm Week we're looking at one of the most terrifying worms in the ocean - the Antarctic Scale Worm.
An 8-inch-long marine worm that lives in the waters near Antarctica has an oval body ringed with shiny golden bristles and topped with a sharp-toothed maw. It somewhat resembles a decoration for the Christmas season — if holiday ornaments included bulbous, extendable throats tipped with pointy teeth.
The unusual creature is Eulagisca gigantea, and though it recently circulated online in photos that appeared on social media, it is more frequently found in the Southern Ocean waters, near Antarctica.
E. gigantea belongs to a class of marine worms called polychaetes, also known as bristle worms (their name means "many bristles" in Latin). The group's bristles can have a range of uses — swimming, crawling along the ocean floor, or even for defense, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
If Tim Burton designed holiday ornaments, they might look something like this bristle worm. |
Little is known about the habits and biology of this peculiar worm, which was first discovered in 1939, the World Register of Marine Species reported. What appears to be a "head" in images is actually a retractable pharynx that is generally housed within its body, as in other polychaete marine worms. When the animal feeds, this section of its throat — tipped by its jaws — extends outward, to a length of about 2 inches (5 centimeters), according to a photo in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's collection.
And its sharp teeth suggest that it preys on other animals or scavenges their remains, the marine biology blog Deep Sea News reported in 2012. A photo shared in a July 7 Facebook post shows a specimen with extruded jaws that was found in the Antarctic Ocean at a depth of 1,706 to 2,198 feet (520 to 670 meters) and highlights the brilliant golden color of its bristles.
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