Watch hypnotizing footage of mysterious deep-sea worm 'dance like nobody's watching'

By Elise Poore published about 4 hours ago

Schmidt Ocean Institute spots a bioluminescent deep-sea worm that creates a hypnotizing display as it swims in circles.

- video at link -

Mesmerizing footage has captured a weird bioluminescent worm undulating through the twilight zone.

Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute spotted the deep-sea worm off the coast of Chile during a research cruise exploring seamounts in the area and posted the video to Facebook. They identified the creature as a segmented gossamer worm (Tomopteris) — a marine worm that spends its entire life in constant motion, never touching the seafloor or seeing sunlight.

"They spend their whole life swimming through the water with rows of paddles, similar to how an earthworm uses its segments to 'swim' through the soil," Steve Haddock, senior scientist and marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who researchers the genus but was not involved in the expedition, told Live Science in an email.

The researchers spotted the glowing worm using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at a depth of about 1,818 feet (554 meters), and then a second time around 2,225 feet (678 m) below the surface, representatives from the Schmidt Ocean Institute told Live Science.



Tomopteris is one of the few marine animals known to have yellow bioluminescence. (Image credit: Ocean Schmidt Institute)

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