Giant Tube Worm

A gutless worm that lives on volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean/Deep Sea & Ocean Life

Giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) live near hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor, at depths of over 2,000 meters where sunlight never reaches. They have no mouth, stomach, or gut. Instead, they rely entirely on billions of symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria housed in a specialized organ called the trophosome, which converts hydrogen sulfide from the vents into nutrients. They can grow up to 2.4 meters long and are among the fastest-growing invertebrates, adding up to 85 cm of tube length per year. The blood-red plume at the top of each tube absorbs chemicals for the bacteria.