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Name : Green spoonworm ( Bonellia viridis )
Where it live : Davy Jones’s locker in the northeastern Atlantic , from the Mediterranean to northerly Norway
Female green spoonworms lie on the seafloor, gobbling up particles of organic matter as it floats by.
What it eat : Organic subject filtered from the piddle and small invertebrate .
Why it ’s amazing : Green spoonworms are named for their spoonful - mould trunk — a foresighted , sucking mouthpart used for alimentation — which stretch out into the piddle to take in food floating by .
" They basically look like a tentacle monster from a sci - fi film,“Trond Roger Oskars , a research scientist specializing in leatherneck invertebrate at Møreforsking Research Institute , told Live Science in an electronic mail .
The rest of their duncical , blimp - form soundbox rest entomb in the seafloor — sometimes in burrows created by other brute — while their medal - like proboscis flutters in the water to fish for tiny pieces of organic matter to eat , include algae , rotten material and even stern . " They ’re like vacuity cleaners sweep over the ocean storey , " Oskars said .
While green spoonworms ' bodies are around 6 or 7 inch ( 15 to 18 centimeters ) long , " that wavy proboscis can gallop up to 10 times longer , " he pronounce .
Their iconic bright green colouring , which comes from a toxic pigment call bonellin , admonish piranha to stay away . But not all green spoonworms look like this . " Here ’s the turn ! " Oskars said . " The gullible specimens you see are only the females . "
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The sexual urge of an individual relies on chemistry rather than genetics . If a larva float through the ocean and settles on the seafloor , it develops into a female . But if a larva lands on a female person , it reacts to the bonellin in her body and sprain into a male . Like some species ofanglerfish , these male are microscopical and are absorb into her body , becoming a parasite with the solitary purpose of fertilizing her testicle . " It ’s basically reduced to a living testicle , " he suppose .
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As well as protecting spoonworms from predators and turning males into living gonads , bonellin kill bacteria . " It is being point as a potential new antibiotic but may have a whole host of other interesting uses , " Oskars said . " They are a prime example of why we take to know more about weird creatures and their home ground … We know only 10 % of the species in the sea , who know what other brute are hide that have extra welfare ? "
