species of the day: Hesiocaeca methanicola

[eub]

http://aslo.org/meetings/santafe99/abstracts/SS27TU1200S.html

Hesiocaeca methanicola lives on methane clathrates in the deep-sea. On exposed surfaces, the 2-5 cm long polychaetes occupy small depressions which cover all visible areas. [...] The tissue stable isotope values of the polychaete (C, N, and S) are consistent with a microbial (chemoautotrophic and not methanotrophic) nutritional source for the worm.

http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/iceworms.htm

The discovery of dense colonies of these one-to-two-inch-long, flat, pinkish worms burrowing into a mushroom-shaped mound of methane seeping up from the sea floor raises speculation that the worms may be a new species with a pervasive and as yet unknown influence on these energy-rich gas deposits.

The worms were observed using their two rows of oar-like appendages to move about the honeycombed, yellow and white surface of the icy mound. The researchers speculate that the worms may be grazing off chemosynthetic bacteria that grow on the methane or are otherwise living symbiotically with them

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