Tube worms. Tubular polychaete sea worm or “Christmas tree” worm (lat. Spirobranchus giganteus). Crabs and shrimp

Tube worm Escarpia laminata. On the right are representatives marked with dye to study annual growth.

American scientists have studied life cycle populations of tube worms of the species Escarpia laminata and found out that they are one of the longest-living creatures on Earth. By tracking changes in the tubeworm's body length and simulating its growth over time, the researchers found that members of this species can live up to 250 years. Article published in the magazine The Science of Nature and is available on the publisher's website Springer.

The deep ocean is home to many long-lived organisms due to the low likelihood of death from predation and the presence of cold seeps - areas in seabed, through which substances enter the water, providing a favorable environment for the life of autotrophs. The nutrition of tube worms depends on autotrophic microbes living inside them, which oxidize methane and hydrogen sulfide (substances of volcanic origin that enter the water due to cold seeps), necessary for their life. Stability of life in symbiosis with bacteria and low temperature depths of the sea are reliable sources of longevity, so tube worms, in particular representatives of the species Lamellibrachia luymesi And Seepiophila jonesi, can live up to two hundred years.

Authors new job investigated a little-studied species of tube worms that live in the depths of the ocean - Escarpia laminata. Representatives of this species live at a depth of 1000 to 3300 meters at the bottom Gulf of Mexico. To this species of tube worm, scientists applied the same method of studying annual growth that was used to study tube worms of the species L. luymesi. 356 representatives of the species E. laminata were measured in situ, marked with waterproof acid dye of blue color and collected after a year. The uncolored area that appeared on the worm's body during this time was an indicator of the annual growth of each individual representative.

Graph of exponential distribution of annual growth (centimeters per year, Y-axis) of E. laminata versus initially measured length (centimeters, X-axis)

Durkin et al. / The Science of Nature 2017

After receiving the tubeworm's annual growth data, the researchers ran a growth simulation E. laminata. The simulation method was based on work on another tubeworm, L. luymesi. Scientists have measured average age both an individual representative of each population, and the average age within one population.

It turned out that the average age of one tube worm with a length of 50 centimeters is 116.1 years (for comparison, with the same length, the age of representatives L. luymesi And S. jonesi estimated at 21 years and 96 years respectively). The longest (and, accordingly, longest-lived) of the collected representatives E. laminata turned out to be more than 250 years old.

Scientists suggest that the reason for the longevity of tube worms is a decrease in metabolic rate, which became possible due to the increase in the depth of the species' habitat.

With a life span of more than 250 years, the tube worm E. laminata second only to one known long-lived invertebrate, the mollusk Artica islandica, whose age may exceed 500 years. About the long-lived vertebrate, Greenland polar shark, you can read in our.

Elizaveta Ivtushok

02/04/2013 | website

“Behold, he spreads his light over it, and covers the bottom of the sea” Job 36:30.

Deep-sea tube worms were first discovered in 1977, when two scientists sank to the ocean floor near Galapagos Islands off the coast South America. Scientists were looking for hot springs there. When the temperature on the thermometer located on the search instruments jumped, they boarded the Alvin submarine and dived to almost 2,700 meters. There they saw the whole living community. Tube worms and other creatures lived around the hot springs.

Deep-sea tube worms have never been seen before, and marine biologists didn't even suspect their existence. This discovery gave rise to new theories and assumptions. At first they were thought to live only in this area, but since then they have been found in six or seven different areas. In March 1984, Alvin delivered a crew of two to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Tube worms were found there, living not around thermal spring. This fact has led marine researchers to believe that tube worms may be living all over the seabed.

How do they eat and live, you ask? Scientists have discovered that the nutrition of tube worms is provided by bacteria living in them. The bacteria, in turn, using certain properties of the worms’ blood, produce food for themselves from the water. In this way, tubeworms and bacteria help each other.

Just as scientists are still discovering new inhabitants of the natural world, many are discovering new truths in the Word of God. It's not that God is hiding something from us. Simply in His natural and spiritual world much is still undiscovered.

Ask God to help you find and believe new truths in His Word today.

"Curiosity" - daily readings for teenagers for 2013

An electronic version of daily readings for teenagers is provided by the publishing house. You can purchase daily readings for teens at Book Centers in your area.

Description: tube worm family Serpulidae live in a limestone tube they built. They usually build colonies of individual animals, which may be due to asexual reproduction. The crown of the tentacles is usually colored red. The animals are very shy: when a large object approaches them, they hide in the tube and appear on the surface only after a few minutes.

Lifestyle: The corolla of tube worms' tentacles allows water to pass through them to catch tiny floating particles. It is important that the current be weak, otherwise the filtering apparatus of these animals will not function effectively. This means that even if there is sufficient food available, but the current is strong, the worms will most likely die.

General information: It is best to keep these tiny worms in a species aquarium. The foam separation and filtration system in such an aquarium should not be very powerful, the current should not be strong, but rather moderate and, above all, constant. A nano aquarium with a reef column ideally meets these criteria.

Under natural conditions, these tiny tube worms reproduce sexually. but no such cases have been recorded in aquariums. Possible reason the emergence of colonies is vegetative propagation by budding. Huge populations of tube worms are sometimes observed in aquariums.

Origin, source: tiny calcium tube worms with red crowned tentacles, reaching a length of 7-10 mm. belong to the clan Filogranella. From time to time they can be found in pet stores. Their tubes are woven into dense balls; several individual animals can be taken from these colonies into a nanoaquarium. Even smaller are tubeworms, which, according to Fossa and Nilsen (1996), belong to the group Vermiliopsis-infunciibulum/glandigera. Their length is only a few millimeters. they have the same red tentacles. These animals live in many aquariums, but to find them, you have to look behind the rocks.

They are often found in filter chambers, skimmers or connecting pipes. It is necessary to carefully separate their tubes without damaging them with a sharp knife. The easiest way to pick up animals is from a glass surface.

Also, small carob worms live in the filter chambers, for example, from the genus Spirorbis. They have a white limestone house, which, however, looks like a snail shell. These worms are even smaller than the previous two types and can be easily removed from the wall of the aquarium using a piece of acrylic glass or a razor blade. For all described tube worms in a nanoaquarium, it is necessary to create good conditions, first of all, optimal flow and shaded place. The tube with the worm should simply be placed in the recess of the stone, and large specimens should be glued with epoxy resin. If environment favorable, the worms form large colonies.

Feeding: tiny tube worms of the family Serpulidae only accept small particles of food. This assumes that the water is not filtered like in a nano reef column aquarium. Based on this, food consumers must live in it: their metabolism is one of the sources of food particles. Consumers are mobile invertebrates and fish. Tube worms benefit both from feeding these animals, their excrement, and from the larvae of microorganisms.

Soon New Year, so this note will be dedicated to one animal, which I completely and completely associate with this holiday. What you see in front of you is not just another beautiful underwater plant in the form of a Christmas tree, but a real animal - a tubular polychaete marine worm of the Sabellidae family.

"New Year trees" are common in tropical zone Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. You can find them at shallow depths among corals, in crystal clear water, poor nutrients.

They live in a limestone tube. At the same time, the main building materials are calcium ions and carbonate ions, which the worm extracts from the water.

Their connecting link is an organic component secreted from two glands located in the mouth. During growth, new parts of the tube are added by small rings that are placed at the end of the old tube.

But before starting to build its shelter, the worm larva carefully selects corals for its house. Only weakened or dead polyps are suitable for her, because it is more convenient to build tube houses on them.

Over time, the corals grow around the tube, becoming less noticeable, and only “herringbones” remain on the surface.

What looks so much like a fir tree are gill rays that diverge into 2 separate spirals. They are simultaneously respiratory and nutritional organs ( pick up small particles of organic matter from the water).

By the way, numerous colonies of worms of the same color are very rare

Their color can be very diverse: bright blue, red and yellow, with shades from white to pink-blue and even black, etc. It may be that the gill rays of one worm have a different color scheme.

One more characteristic feature These worms are identified by the presence of a cap on the tube that tightly closes the entrance to the tube. At the slightest danger, the worm instantly retracts its spiral-shaped gill rays inside the tube, thereby closing with a lid.

Spirobranchus giganteus lives differently, it all depends on the species: smaller worms live for several months, and larger species live up to 4-8 years.

Sea worms - unusual creatures. Many of them look like fantastic flowers or bright flat ribbons, and there are species that evoke a shiver of horror with their appearance and habits. In general, the sea worm is a very interesting creature. It can be spiny-headed, polychaete, ringed, flat, hairy, and so on. The list is actually huge. In this article we will take a closer look at several types.

tubular polychaete

sea ​​worm, the photo of which looks like an exotic flower, is called tubular polychaete or “Christmas tree.” This applies bright look to the family Sabellidae. Latin name animal - Spirobranchus giganteus, and English - Christmas tree worm.

This species of sea worm lives in the tropical zone of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Preference is given to shallow depths, coral thickets and clean water.

To feel protected, this sea worm builds a calcareous tube of calcium and carbonate ions. The animal extracts its construction material straight out of the water. For a bunch of ions " Christmas tree» secretes a special organic component from two oral glands. As the worm grows, the tube has to be added by attaching new rings to the end of the old shelter.

The larvae of polychaete tubeworms are responsible when choosing a place for a house. They begin construction only on dead or weak corals. Sometimes they gather in entire colonies, but single houses are also found quite often. As the corals grow, they hide the tube, leaving only an elegant multi-colored “herringbone” on the surface. By the way, the color of the sea worm is really bright and rich. It comes in blue, yellow, red, white, pink, mottled and even black. There are a lot of options. Non-fast individuals combine different colors.

A beautiful external “Christmas tree” is not just a decoration, but gill rays that perform the work of the nutritional and respiratory organs. Each sea worm has two spirals of gill rays.

Polychaetes take care of their safety at the stage of building a house. The lime tube has a tight lid; at the slightest threat, the worm instantly pulls in and slams the entrance shut.

Depending on the species, Spirobranchus giganteus live from 4 to 8 years.

Polychaetes

Polychaetes belong to the phylum annelids, class Polychaetes. More than 10 thousand species live in nature. Most of lives in the seas and leads a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Some families (for example, Tomopteridae) live in the perialium (open sea or ocean that does not touch the bottom). Several genera live in fresh waters, for example in Lake Baikal.

Marine sandstone

One of the most common representatives of polychaetes is the ringed polychaete marine worm, whose name is the marine sandworm. In Latin it sounds like Arenicola marina. The animal is quite large, its length reaches 20 cm. This sea worm lives in arched burrows dug in the bottom sand. The food for this species is bottom sediment, which the worm passes through the intestines.

The body of an adult individual consists of three sections - thorax, abdomen and caudal. The outer integument forms secondary rings that do not correspond to segmentation. There are 11 abdominal segments in the body of the worm, and each contains paired bushy gills.

The sea sandbite strengthens the walls of its home with mucus. The length of the burrow is about 30 cm. While in the house, the worm places the front end of its body in the horizontal section of the burrow, and the rear end in the vertical section. A funnel forms on the ground above the head end of the worm as it constantly swallows bottom sediments. To defecate, the sandworm exposes its rear end from the burrow. At this moment, the sea worm can become prey for a predator.

Nereid

Nereid is a sea ringed crawler that serves as food for many sea ​​fish. The body of the worm consists of segments. At the front point there is a head, on which there are tentacles, a mouth, jaws and two pairs of eyes. The sides of the segments are equipped with flat processes similar to blades. Numerous long bristles are concentrated here.

In the Nereid, the entire surface of the body is involved in breathing. The ringed ones, which are familiar to everyone, breathe the same way. The Nereid moves, quickly moving its blade-like outgrowths. At the same time, the body rests on the bottom with tufts of bristles. In its menu this sea ringworm includes algae and small animals that are grabbed by the jaws.

Breathing Features

The breathing method used by the Nereids can be considered an exception to the rule for this type of worm. How do other representatives of ringed animals breathe? What do the breathing of marine annelids have in common? Respiration of most species occurs through gills, which are located on blade-shaped outgrowths. The gills are equipped big amount capillaries. The enrichment of blood with oxygen comes from air, which is dissolved in water. This is where carbon dioxide is released into the water.

Marine flatworms

The marine flatworm is most often a predator. He moves by crawling or swimming. It is a bilaterally symmetrical animal. Turbellaria have a flattened body of oval or elongated shape. The sensory organs are located on the front of the body, and the mouth is on the ventral side.

The digestive tract of eyelash worms varies by species. It can be completely primitive or quite complex, with a branched intestine.

Some species of marine turbellaria are discreet and inconspicuous, but there are bright multi-colored beauties that are simply impossible not to notice.