Comments on: Meet the squidworm: half-worm, half-squid… er, actually all-worm

By: Rhys

Rhys — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:08:15 +0000

I don’t care if it’s harmless, if I saw it touch my foot, as unlikely as that would be, I’m screaming like a seven year old girl.

By: Colugo

Colugo — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:19:45 +0000

Ir it had been discovered in the Burgess Shale, would it have been described as representing a new phylum rather than identified as another annelid?

By: Rob Clack

Rob Clack — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:57:13 +0000

Interesting that it seems to fall between the errant and sedentary polychaetes (even if it does look a bit like Anomalocaris!) Errant (free-living) polychaetes, like Nereis, have jaws and tend to be predatory. Sedentary ones, like the terebellids, live in burrows and have tentacles that collect food particles and transport them to the mouth.

By: Nige

Nige — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:26:04 +0000

I was expecting something that combines the sand worms from Dune and a Kracken, I really should lower my expectations…. Otherwise very good intro, it made me laugh. Regarding #1′s comments re. the Burgess Shale, it would be very cool if this was an extant relative of one of the shale specimens!

By: Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:21:34 +0000

If someone ever decides to genetically engineer some kind of killer parasite that takes people over and turns them into zombies a la Resident Evil…they should base it on this creature. It looks the part.

By: Walter S. Andriuzzi

Walter S. Andriuzzi — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:27:38 +0000

“Some scientific discoveries [...] is the third kind of discovery”. Better. Intro. Ever.
Screw Mars and the space, the deep sea is the alien world we should investigate on! … Ok, screw the space is excessive, that is very very excting too – it’s just that there’s too much hype on that and too little attention on the deep sea… although things are starting to change hopefully

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:10:41 +0000

Looks like something you’d find in the Burgess Shale, no? In fact, the first picture I saw made me think this was a new Burgess Shale critter, and the photo was of a model of it! How very strange indeed…