Sabellid Worms

I recently did a mini-project where I filmed sabellid worms. The sabellid worms include the well known feather duster worms and the Christmas tree worms. Predictably, many underwater photographers will have shots of the Christmas tree worms on their social media feeds around Christmas…

I filmed these worms when they retracted quickly into their tubes, in reaction to me coming close (these worms can see!) or in reaction to me carefully touching the edge of their tentacle crown. I shot the footage at 240 fps, and slowed it down 16x, so that the motion is nicely resolved for the human eye. All footage is from Dauin, Negros Island, Philippines, close to where I live.

The video is here:

I discuss this very interesting paper in the video, which shows what kind of relatively recently evolved  eyes these worms have on their crowns. Lots of different arrangements of eyes:

Bok, M. J., Capa, M., & Nilsson, D. E. (2016). Here, there and everywhere: the radiolar eyes of fan worms (Annelida, Sabellidae). Integrative and Comparative Biology, 56(5), 784-795.

 

Worm Images

This is a collection of images of sabellid worms which I took over the years. Interestingly, some of them carry parasites in their crowns. Can you find them?