Скачать или смотреть Flame on: The vibrant red gossamer worm is the race car of the deep sea

MBARI’s advanced underwater robots have filmed a remarkable variety of deep-sea animals. Our archive of more than 30,000 hours of underwater video contains many hidden gems. In celebration of International Polychaete Day on July 1, our Video Lab is revisiting an encounter with a unique worm that dances through the midwater.

Gossamer worms (Tomopteris spp.) call the expansive waters of the ocean’s twilight zone home. Most polychaete worms are bottom-dwelling animals, who crawl along the mud or shelter inside a parchment tube. Living up in the water column, thousands of feet above the seafloor, has made Tomopteris effective swimmers. They swish their body side to side while rowing paddle-like parapodia, providing both speed and maneuverability for hunting prey and evading predators.

Life in open water presents other challenges too. Red light doesn’t reach the deep sea, so that brilliant color actually keeps this Tomopteris hidden from predators, a form of crimson camouflage.

The deep sea is the largest living space on Earth, but remains shrouded in mystery. This stunningly scarlet Tomopteris is likely an undescribed species, one of many new discoveries that lie deep beneath the ocean’s surface. By documenting life in the deep sea, we’re building a better baseline of ocean health that will help us monitor how the amazing animals of the deep will navigate a changing ocean.

Learn more about these and other amazing animals of the deep: https://www.mbari.org/animal/gossamer...

Editor: Kyra Schlining
Production team: Susan von Thun
Music: Garage Surf Rock (Pond5 035572171)