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Name : Pigbutt worm ( Chaetopterus pugaporcinus )
Where it lives : primal California ( primarily around Monterey Bay ) and the Channel Islands
Pigbutt worms were first discovered in 2001 after being pulled up from California’s Monterey Bay and labeled “mystery blob."
What it eats : Marine snow ( organic material that floats through the ocean )
Why it ’s awesome : This hazelnut - size worm is so strange that researchers did n’t know how to categorize it when it was first collect by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ( MBARI ) scientists in 2001 .
" I was at once interested in this strange creature that look like the rump of a pig from one side and Mick Jagger ’s lips from the other . Was it a larva that had mature to 10 metre the normal size or something new?“Karen Osborn , a inquiry zoologist at the Smithsonian ’s National Museum of Natural History and an auxiliary scientist at MBARI , told Live Science via electronic mail .
Researchers believe these strange creatures may be in the middle of anevolutionaryleap, abandoning the seafloor for the water column.
Meet the pigbutt dirt ball 🐷 🪱When our team , include @OsbornLab , first espy the unusual pigbutt worm ( Chaetopterus pugaporcinus ) a half mile below the sea surface , they had a hard clip determining how to categorize such a funny critter . pic.twitter.com/7fN9xDoHYmFebruary 29 , 2024
Osborn was handed a little jar mark " mystery blob " and was ask to figure out what it was . The species wasofficially depict in 2007from eight individuals collected from the mesopelagic zone — the area between 650 and 3,300 feet ( 200 to 1,000 cadence ) — of California ’s Monterey Bay .
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The baffling creature wait like an oversize larva of a chaetopterid — a type of bristle dirt ball — and desoxyribonucleic acid sequencing confirm it was in this family .
" Chaetopterids are parchment worm , so called because they make papery tubes attached to the seafloor , " Osborn said . But unlike its tubelike cousins , which are free - swim only in the larval stage , this dirt ball floats through the ocean , using its billow midsection for buoyancy .
Researchers believe the pigbutt worms collected were adults , but they ’re not entirely sure as the specimens also show some trait characteristic of larvae . They did n’t have any obvious sexual urge harmonium , indicating they were in the younger stagecoach of life , but they were five to 10 times large than any other do it chaetopterid larvae . When invest in a tank with the option of settling on the deposit at the bottom , they stayed floating around , suggesting they have no indigence for this habitat at any stage of their lives .
This leave researchers to paint a picture pigbutt worms are in the middle of an " evolutionary leap , " abandoning the seafloor for a nomadic modus vivendi in the water column .
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ship live sample back to the research vessel enable scientist to learn more about this flakey petty brute . For instance , its body creates downhearted light and produces a dark-green , bioluminescent mucus , perhaps to discourage predator .
Pigbutt worm eat marine snow — tiny particles of utter animals , feces and other organic matter . As the " snow " falls toward the Davy Jones , the worm " casts out a web of snot " to catch it , according to MBARI ’s internet site .
Pigbutt worms were diagnose by the remotely operate vehicle pilots who establish the strange blob . During long 60 minutes exploring the deep sea , " the conversation can get a little colorful , especially when faced with the hunt for something that attend like the back end of a squealer , " Osborn say .
