Questing for dissolved organic matter along Cannery Row.
A beautiful nudibranch in Carmel to break up theNOPE TUBEWORM !
Worms in the deep sea? When pig butts fly! A favorite from @MBARI_News, behold the pig butt worm — Chaetopterus pugaporcinus
Tomopterid worm in the deep Monterey Bay. Its red gut hides bioluminescent snacks from prying eyes. You know you wanna click the link to know more: mbayaq.co/2PwyWHv@MBARI_News
🎶Just chaete swimming...🎶
This worm's genus is Swima. The runner-up was Slinky.
[very The Mask voice] SSSSMOKIN' !!
Riftia vent worms holding it down for the chemosynthetic worm fam from @MBARI_News' expedition to Baja: mbayaq.co/2BzwTzN
Veni. Vidi. Vermi. We hope you enjoyed this #WormWednesday thread. If it whetted your appetite for more worm content, this video by @MBARI_News is a monster meal of wonderful worms to feast upon!
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1/ Are you sitting down? Get comfy, this one's a doozy: Here's a PSA about the alternation of generations and sequential hermaphroditism of Thetys vagina salps.
2/
• These are salps—filter-feeding, gelatinous drifters.
• Their scientific name is Thetys vagina.
• Vagina salps come in two morphs: solitary (📸 1) and chains (📸 2)
• Joe Platko took these photos this week off Cannery Row. Thanks Joe! mbayaq.co/2D1br75
3/ • Solitary salps produce the chains asexually—you can see a rope of clones (the stolon) forming in the salp's "belly," each small orb being the gut of one salp in the chain.
• Chains of the clonal individuals can be tens of feet long. The chain here was about 3 feet long.