Beyond its appearance, the squid worm fascinates scientists in part because its odd features suggest the worm may be a transitional form—a species caught in a burst of evolutionary adaptation as it straddles two very different habitats, said study co-author Karen Osborn, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Observed between 1.2 and 1.8 miles (2 and 2.9 kilometers) below the ocean surface, Teuthidodrilus samae lives neither on the seafloor nor in the sunny shallows.
Instead, the worm inhabits a dark in-between realm, where the limited observations done so far show the worm feeding off plankton and other nutritious detritus in the water.
Whatever the cause of the squid worm's chimerical form, it apparently works. "Numerous" specimens were observed during just a few dives, the study authors write—suggesting Teuthidodrilus is common and thriving in the region.
And its homely charms apparently work on humans, or at least on worm curators.
0 comments:
Post a Comment