What would you do with 1,000 butts? Sea worms ramicilis multicaudata There are only two animals known to have been in this rather embarrassing situation (buying pants must be a nightmare), but we don’t know yet. But given that many loot don’t occur in worms “by chance,” there must be a good deal of reason.New anatomical studies offer some tasty clues.

The story begins normally. ramicilis is bristle worm lives in a sponge channel called Petrosia A shallow coral reef off northern Australia. Its lonely, unremarkable, rather lethargic head is buried deep in a sponge. Immediately after that, things get weird.

Its body begins to branch repeatedly without pattern. Posteriorly occurring legions may protrude from the sponge’s natural holes into the seawater and roam along its surface: more than 100, sometimes 10 or more, can be found in one “small” sponge that scientists have observed. A worm fanny was chained to one of his openings. Sponges are many remarkable things, but the Sentient is not one of them.

Additionally, each branch contains its own set of internal organs. according to First detailed anatomical study Of these worms, announced this year in morphology journal According to teams from Spain, Australia and Germany, these organs are no different from unbranched juveniles. They further found that the worm’s gut was continuous throughout the animal, like a labyrinth, but apparently empty.

But they also found that the worm’s hindgut is covered with cilia and microvilli, finger-like extensions that maximize the surface area available for nutrient absorption (your own The intestines are lined with a similar velvety lining of villi and microvilli. It remains a mystery how they can survive with invisible food that enters only through a full regulatory size mouth.

What makes these worms particularly interesting is that they look like animals that have adopted a fungal lifestyle. Look at bacteria under a microscopeand a system of branch pipes is displayed. strongly resembles ramicilisAnd this similarity suggests what these worms are doing in sponges.

Fungi are absorbent feeders. They burrow into food, secrete digestive enzymes, and reabsorb the resulting mucus. It’s not because the intestines are crammed into a small body, but because the entire body is an intestine, turned inside out.

It has been known for some time that soft-bodied marine invertebrates can absorb dissolved organic matter (liquid food) directly from seawater through their ‘skin’.However ramicilis We could have taken this to the next level. The dissection team found that the worm’s body was also covered with long microvilli. ramicilis Given the lack of focus on creating a body plan, and a head and mouth that fits the situation, I have to strongly suspect that it turned the outside into the inside like a fungus.

If their highly branched bodies aren’t suggestive of fungi enough, let me present Exhibit B: Their Ridiculous Reproductive Systems.

The first clues to their extremely alternative lifestyle are ramicilis I never go on dates. Thousands of tentacle-like branches stuffed into water passages, Petrosia Spongebob, you committed to the home, not the relationship (or even the connection). The usual solution is to put millions of cheap gametes directly into the water, wave goodbye and turn on the unmissable TV.Corals and sea anemones are prominent practitioners of this enviable reproductive technology. .

but this is not root ramicilis and many others Cyril Polychaete I got a worm. At the back of their body is a small tail called a tail. pygidium (Trilobite There was also this cute butt flap).Right in front of it is the police worm version of apical meristem Plant: A place where stem cells continuously generate new body parts called the posterior growth zone. Polychaete worms have these to make new somites. However, this is an unusual situation for animals and has led to some unusual results.

Sometimes, instead of creating new canonical segments, these regions begin to create the rudimentary brain and head containing the four eyes. The head is followed by more gamete-stuffed body parts, and before you know it, you’ve got a sexy little hot rod attached to your mothership, ready to be jettisoned when the time is right. Clones (known in botany as “stromedaries”; the runners of strawberries and other horizontal plant stems are also called stolons) are armed with paddles, guidance, and lust.

in short, ramicilis creates an autonomous gonad at its ambiguous midpoint detachable penis and a freshman in college. The group to which these worms belong, Cylids, is perhaps unique among bilaterally symmetrical animals in this bizarre reproductive strategy and has been termed ‘twin-producing split mates’. Certain insects, of course, do similar things in that they produce very small, transitory adults whose sole purpose is to knock on your boots in extreme urgency, but they generally do much more as larvae. and they do not germinate from existing insects. It’s a very mycological way of doing things.

surely, Ramisyllis prostrate image Within its reproductive worm branches, a striking resemblance picture of fungus Fusarium It has characteristic boat-shaped spores.Stolons of other unbranched Cyrillic species Can also be made in bundles or chainslike fungal spores.

This highly reproductive habit may have allowed the silridworm to grow multiple-choice bodies. It could be just a few mutations from the replacement.

Yet something about this story haunts me. If the entire body can absorb dissolved food, why the emphasis on all the myriad undersides that reach the surface of the sponge? Found stuffed in a sponge cul-de-sac. Scientists have interpreted this as a thwarted attempt by the aforementioned underside to reach the surface. The tail also contains a bright white pigment of unknown function, produced whether or not it reaches the top.

Why is it so important that the tail finds an exit? Do dissolved organics really taste better outside the sponge? And why are they wearing the equivalent of highway reflective paint? Is it just for sunscreen? Or is there another way?

nevertheless ramicilis apparently what are you doing Me what would you do with a thousand loot – shake them – that’s exactly what it is For real Their relationship remains a mystery.

This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily Scientific American.

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