Pink Giant of the Deep

As the tiny submersible Alvin, out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, cruised at depths of nearly two miles in the Pacific 200 miles northeast of the Galapagos Islands, the vessel's bright strobe lights caught a curious sight: a cluster of vertical tubes growing in rocky crevices of this volcanically active region of the sea floor. Each pipe housed a pinkish worm with an elegant, red, feathery plume. Alvin's robot-like arms grappled up samples, and still more on a return visit earlier this year. Amazingly, some were giant worms, ranging up to 8 1/2 ft. in length.

At first, laughs Woods Hole Biologist J. Frederick Grassle, "we didn't believe it." But since that original bit of serendipity, during Alvin's probings of the earth's great undersea rift zones, scientists have convinced themselves the spectacular pink giants are no joke. Indeed, the odd creatures have, so to speak, opened a whole new can of worms.

Some scientists place them in a recent, still highly controversial biological grouping, or phylum, called Vestimentifera (after their cloaklike vestments).

Living quietly in the depths for millenniums, blissfully unaware of the scientific quarrels about them, the worms attach themselves to rock walls and form their tough, flexible nylon-like housing as they grow. They have no eyes, mouth or gut, and absorb nutrients and oxygen through their elegant snouts. Especially fascinating to scientists is the fact that there is apparently no food shortage in this extraordinary unique ecological niche. The warming waters of undersea hot springs serve up a rich diet of bacteria and other microorganisms.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.