Gulf of Mexico Ice Worms

[Geoff Read]

I mentioned ...

> ... Also there is an article in the 
> latest New Scientist (9 August 1997. Vol. 155 No. 2094).

This issue has just arrived down under. It has the same photo as the web 
site, but there are a few more snippets of information:

'Lair of the ice worms' (by Stephanie Pain), p19 

[ice surface] "etched with dimples ... like the outside of a beehive, with 
a worm in each dimple."

" ... [worms] appear to be a new species belonging to a group called the 
HESIONIDS, Fisher says. [...] between 2 and 5 centimetres long, look like 
typical polychaetes, with a row of bristly 'feet' along each side. A 
haemoglobin-type molecule in their blood gives their bodies a pinkish 
colour, and their bristles are white."

"[... found right through the ice ] The burrow system appears to be quite
extensive [Ian MacDonald says]."

(Worms are PINK. Is the band of BLUEish things in the top of the photo 
something significant or just part of the substratum?)

--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>


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