Sentences with phrase «giant tube worms»

In the vicinity of these vents, where temperatures hover at a cozy 30 degrees Celsius, thick mats of chemosynthetic bacteria convert vent chemicals into energy, and in turn support colonies of giant tube worms, huge beds of mussels and a variety of crustaceans.

Then, in 1977, an exploratory dive in the Galapagos Rift discovered giant tube worms, clams, and other crustaceans that survived without any access to the Sun.

The discovery in 1977 of hydrothermal vent communities and giant tube worms emerges as one of the most exciting finds in recent years.

It grows in thick mats and shares its habitat near fissures in the Earth's crust with a few other hardy microbes and colonies of giant tube worms.

The real stunner, however, came in the form of what looked like a feathery, elongated lipstick tube: Riftia pachyptila, more commonly known as the giant tube worm.

Giant tube worms, crabs, and shrimp live in the dark, a mile below the ocean surface, huddled around superheated geothermal vents.

To assess how long the larvae live and how far they can travel, Donal T. Manahan of the University of Southern California and his colleagues studied larvae of the giant tube worm Riftia pachyptila (right).

The project grew out of a class of Johnston's that focuses on large marine animals such as dolphins, turtles, seals and giant tube worms.

So hot was the vent water — 403 degrees C — that many of the previous inhabitants, like the giant tube worms, had been baked to death.

After some time, probably within a couple years or so, the new vent is colonized by more familiar inhabitants, such as the giant tube worms.

Nowhere is the importance of symbiosis better demonstrated than in the giant tube worm, who has the scientific name Riftia pachyptila.