Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 20 hours ago
A team of researchers has discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Greg Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, co-authored a study describing the new species in the journal PLOS ONE that was published on March 6, 2024.
The worm, named Pectinereis strickrotti, has an elongated body that is flanked by a row of feathery, gill-tipped appendages called parapodia on either side, and Rouse said its sinuous swimming reminded him of a snake.
The species was named after Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Bruce Strickrott, lead pilot for the famed deep-sea submersible Alvin, who Rouse said was instrumental in the effort to locate and collect the creature. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.
This video shows males of the new species of deep-sea worm swimming near the seafloor off the coast of Costa Rica on Nov. 2, 2018.
Credit: Courtesy of Erik Cordes, Temple U./NSF/HOV Alvin/2018 ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Learn more: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-deep-sea-worm-discovered-methane-seep-costa-rica
#deepsea #deepseacreatures #seaworm #marinebiology
A team of researchers has discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Greg Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, co-authored a study describing the new species in the journal PLOS ONE that was published on March 6, 2024.
The worm, named Pectinereis strickrotti, has an elongated body that is flanked by a row of feathery, gill-tipped appendages called parapodia on either side, and Rouse said its sinuous swimming reminded him of a snake.
The species was named after Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Bruce Strickrott, lead pilot for the famed deep-sea submersible Alvin, who Rouse said was instrumental in the effort to locate and collect the creature. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.
This video shows males of the new species of deep-sea worm swimming near the seafloor off the coast of Costa Rica on Nov. 2, 2018.
Credit: Courtesy of Erik Cordes, Temple U./NSF/HOV Alvin/2018 ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Learn more: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-deep-sea-worm-discovered-methane-seep-costa-rica
#deepsea #deepseacreatures #seaworm #marinebiology
