It looks like a bit of Christmas decoration has found its way
to the bottom of the ocean. But wait. The tinsel has come
to life, and it looks like an alien with slimy teeth.
Say hello to your Christmas nightmare,
the Antarctic scale worm.
It has been waiting under the polar ice caps on
the Antarctic ocean floor. And it’s time for it to feast.
About 8,000 known species of scale worms or polychaetes
live in an incredible variety of ocean habitats, from shallow
tide pools to volcanic hydrothermal-vent chimneys.
They can be small as your thumbnail or as long as
2 m (6.5 ft). And scale worms come
in every color you can think of.
But the Antarctic scale worm is among the newer varieties
discovered. These scale worms’ oval-shaped bodies
are flat and covered in, you guessed it, scales.
Surrounding this scaly body is a trimming of shiny golden
bristles. And these worms can grow to 20 cm (8 in) long
and 10 cm (4 in) wide.
The more tinsel, the better, I’d say. But there is the
scary-looking alien jaw at one end of that shiny body.
But we’ll get to that in a bit.
The golden bristles are spine-like, and they feel hard
where they emerge from the scale. But they soften into a
hair-like texture towards the tip.
They are called parapodia, and the scale worm uses them
for swimming and crawling along the ocean floor.
The bristles move like hundreds of tiny paddles
in water as the worm expands and contracts
its body to move. It's like the way centipedes move on land.
Scientists are still learning
about the Antarctic scale worm.
But if it’s anything like its cousins, its shiny bristles
could help it breathe. It might even use its flamboyant
trimmings to produce venom to
defend itself from predators.
But who needs a side-show of poison-bristles
when you’ve got a nasty mouth like that?
Like all good horror shows, there is an element of
surprise here. When it's not feeding,
the Antarctic scale worm’s
jaw looks like a sucking mouthpart.
It's alarming, but meh, we’ve seen worse.
But then it gets ready to feed, and its toothy part extends
out of its body by about 5 cm (2 in).
And once the meal is over, it folds
right back into its body and remains hidden until
it's snack time again.
Oh, and that's not its head that the jaw is on
That's its throat.
Antarctic scale worms live at depths of more than
1,640 ft (500 m). And unless you are a smaller
ocean-floor-dwelling creature, they
won't be coming to feed on you.
Like many predators, scale worms like this dazzler
provide critical services to their ecosystem.
They are avid recyclers and expert builders.
And the reef structures scale worms create
are home to crabs, snails and other worms.
The Antarctic scale worm looks scary, but it's a lot nicer
than its cousin, the bobbit worm. And we've got the story
on this evil cousin in another episode of Crazy Creatures.
Having shiny bristles and terrifying retractable
jaws is what Antarctic scale worms do.
And that’s why they are Crazy Creatures.