What do Pompeii worms eat?
Pompeii worms eat microscopic bacteria that grows along deep-ocean trenches where geologic activity brings energy to the sea bottom.
Does the Pompeii worm have eyes?
It has no eyes, mouth, or stomach. Instead, this worm relies on the billions of bacteria that live inside it to make food.
How do Pompeii worms reproduce?
pompejana lives in an ephemeral environment and must reproduce and disperse accordingly. It is a gonochoric species that displays a pseucopulatory behaviour allowing transfer of sperm to female spermathecae, thus avoiding dispersion of the gametes.
How deep do Pompeii worms live?
Pompeii worms were initially discovered by French researchers in the early 1980’s and are described as deep-sea polychaetes that reside in tubes near hydrothermal vents along the seafloor. They can reach up to 5 inches in length and are pale gray with red tentacle-like gills on their heads.
Is the Pompeii worm an animal?
The Pompeii worm (Alvinella pompejana) is an extremophile—an animal that thrives under extreme conditions.
Do worms have nipples?
They come out at night to hunt insects, worms, snails, and sometimes even mice. Each female has two nipples that are located almost on her butt.
Where is the Pompeii worm found?
Pacific Ocean
The Pompeii worm (Alvinella pompejana) is a deep-sea polychaete vermiform extremophile found only at hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, discovered in the early 1980s off the Galápagos Islands by French researchers.
Where is the Pompeii worm located?
hydrothermal vents
The Pompeii worm resides in tubes near hydrothermal vents along the seafloor.
How do Pompeii worms breathe?
The Pompeii worms form large aggregate colonies enclosed in delicate, paper-thin tubes. Thought to subsist on vent microbes, the Pompeii worm pokes its feather-like head out of its tube home to feed and breathe.
How big is the back of a Pompeii worm?
Reaching a length of up to 13 centimetres (5 inches), Pompeii worms are a pale grey with “hairy” backs; these “hairs” are actually bacteriawhich are thought to afford the worm some degree of insulation. Glands on the worm’s back secrete a mucus which the bacteria feed on (see symbiosis).
How does the Pompeii worm get its food?
Thought to subsist on vent microbes, the Pompeii worm pokes its feather-like head out of its tube home to feed and breathe. The plume of tentacle-like structures on the head are gills, coloured red by haemoglobin. It is the posterior end that is exposed to extreme temperatures; the anterior end stays at a much more comfortable 22°C (72°F).
Why was the Pompeii worm called a Polychaeta?
In fact, Polychaeta means many bristled. These bristles are a critical component of the worm’s ability to live and move. The reason they possess the common name of Pompeii is their ability to thrive in extremely hot temperatures, up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit (80 degrees Celsius).
What kind of worms are found in the Pacific Ocean?
Named after the famous Italian city of Pompeii, the Pompeii worm is a deep-sea creature that is only found in the Pacific Ocean. The Pompeii worm is a Polychaeta, a class of marine annelid worms.