Worms wiggling with weapons way down beneath the waves

Woah! Worms at the bottom of the sea are carrying bombs. Glowing bombs.

Seven new species of deep sea worm have been discovered by Karen Osborn of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California and her colleagues. All strong swimmers, five of these critters have attached to their bodies little balloon structures.

As soon as the worms start to get hassled by predators these balloons are released. Bombs away! And as the bombs are dropped they start to glow.

This has to be the coolest discovery of a new species for a long time. I almost don’t care what’s in the bombs and why, or how they evolved them, they’re so weird.

However, that is not the scientific way as well we all know. Osborn says that the bombs glow for around a minute after release and act to distract predators. The bombs are kind of modified gills, and once released the chemicals held in there come together and react, creating the glow.

The worms have been named Swima bombiviridis and have picked up quite some attention. And quite right too.

(New York Times, National Geographic, MSNBC, AP).

Oh, and if worms with bombs sounds familiar to you, you’re right.

More pictures below the fold for your viewing pleasure…