VIDEO: This 'sassy sparkler' sea bug will dazzle you with its style
Sea worm Chile
Earth's oceans are full of strange creatures. A team of scientists from the Schmidt Ocean Institute have found a strange-looking sea worm that looks like a disco caterpillar. It has black bristles all over its body that sparkle when light reflects off them.
The discovery was made using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian off the coast of Chile. The marine creature was spotted roaming on the floor with other animals making way for it. As the lights from the submersible hit its body, the bristles sparkled, making it look like a disco ball.
The creature is a polychaete, a type of deep-sea worm known as a bristle worm. Around 13,000 species of polychaete live in marine ecosystems across the world. It includes various types of worms, such as bloodworms (shudder) and the strangely-named pigbutt worm.
Schmidt Ocean posted about the seaworm on Instagram on November 4. Calling the worm a "sassy sparkler", it wrote, "Some worms are bioluminescent, but this sassy sparkler has protein structures in the bristles that make them iridescent."
A post shared by Schmidt Ocean Institute (@schmidtocean)
Some polychaetes can survive the extremely high-temperature differences found on hydrothermal vents.
Also Read:Rare deep-sea creature seen walking on 13-foot-long legs at depth of 10,800 feet
This is because they form symbiotic relationships with bacteria. A few others feed on plankton and marine snow falling onto the sea floor from high above. They play an important role in the marine ecosystem by cleaning up detritus at the bottom of the sea.
The team is going to further explore the submarine canyons along the Nazca plate as part of the #ChileMargin2024 mission. It will investigate hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon seeps off the west coast of Chile.
Squid that walks on 13-foot tentacles
A few weeks back, a bigfin squid (Magnapinna) was captured on camera walking on its 13-foot-long tentacles in the depths of the Tonga Trench in the South Pacific. It was seen 10,800 feet below the surface of the water by an underwater rover deployed by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre.
Their sightings are extremely rare and only 20 of them have been documented to date. It is one of the deepest-dwelling squids in scientific records. Their fins comprise 90 per cent of their body.