Hi,
Perhaps I totally mystified some of you. For further enlightenment I feel I
can safely quote 2 paragraphs from "Worms start the reef-building
process" for purposes of scholarly discussion without risking a copyright
breach. In fact I could probably have just used the 2 sentences in the first
paragraph below, but the in depth analysis of the following paragraph
should not be overlooked.
"... Less than 1 hour after darkness, the head and upper body of a
bootlace- thick eunicid worm appeared from a hole in the rock. The worm
sought out a coral and dragged it to the reef rock in less than 2 seconds
(Fig. 1). "
"The persistent nightly efforts of the eunicid worm shown in Fig. 1 to
expand and elaborate a durable habitat for itself suggest that such
behaviour must have a genetic basis. Although immature, the worm shown
in Fig. 1 could raise a 10-g piece of coral above the sand bed of the
aquarium and cement it, with its photo-synthetic tissue orientated upwards,
to the side of a piece of reef rock. Fully grown eunicid worms, which can
be more than 2 m long [3], must be able to assemble and bind together
sizeable mounds of hard substrata."
Reference [3] is to Parker's (1982) 'Synopsis and classification of living
organisms'. You may wonder whether that citation best encapsulates
research both prior to 1982 and to the present day on the biology and
identity of these polychaetes. Well, let me reassure you. Of course it does,
else Nature's ever vigilant editors would have stomped on these nice people
and not let the urge to run a cute time-series of photos of an interesting but
trivial occurrence with an unidentified worm outweigh their always
impeccable judgement.
:^)
--
Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>
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