All Topics  
Siboglinidae

 
Siboglinidae

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Siboglinidae
 
 
  Topics Siboglinidae Topic Home

Siboglinidae, also known as the beard worms, is a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of polychaete
Polychaete

The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin....
 annelid worms whose members made up the former phyla
Phylum

A phylum "Phylum" is adopted from the Greek phylai, the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. is a taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above Class ....
 Pogonophora (the giant tube worms) and Vestimentifera. They are composed of about 100 species of vermiform creatures and live in thin tubes buried in sediments at ocean depths from 100 to 10,000 m. They can also be found in association with hydrothermal vents, methane seep
Cold seep

A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool....
s, with sunken plant material or whale carcasses
Whale fall

Whale fall is the term used for a whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor. Whale falls were first observed in the 1980s, with the advent of deep-sea robotic exploration....
.

are less than 1 mm in diameter but 10 to 75 cm in length.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Siboglinidae'
Start a new discussion about 'Siboglinidae'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Siboglinidae, also known as the beard worms, is a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of polychaete
Polychaete

The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin....
 annelid worms whose members made up the former phyla
Phylum

A phylum "Phylum" is adopted from the Greek phylai, the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. is a taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above Class ....
 Pogonophora (the giant tube worms) and Vestimentifera. They are composed of about 100 species of vermiform creatures and live in thin tubes buried in sediments at ocean depths from 100 to 10,000 m. They can also be found in association with hydrothermal vents, methane seep
Cold seep

A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool....
s, with sunken plant material or whale carcasses
Whale fall

Whale fall is the term used for a whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor. Whale falls were first observed in the 1980s, with the advent of deep-sea robotic exploration....
.

Anatomy

Most are less than 1 mm in diameter but 10 to 75 cm in length. They have a complex closed circulatory system and a well developed nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
. They are the only known animals that, as adults, completely lack a mouth, gut and anus. Their body is divided into four regions; the cephalic lobe, forepart, trunk, and opisthosoma
Opisthosoma

The opisthosoma is the posterior portion of the arachnids body behind the prosoma . The number of segments and appendages on the opisthosoma vary....
. The anterior is called the cephalic lobe, which bears from 1 to over 200 thin branchial tentacle
Tentacle

Tentacles can refer to the elongated flexible organs that are present in some animals, especially invertebrates, and sometimes to the hairs of the leaves of some carnivorous plant....
s, which bears tiny side branches known as pinnules. Posterior to the cephalic lobe is the short forepart, and then the elongate trunk, which bears various annuli, papillae, and ciliary tracts. Posterior to the trunk is the short metamerically segmented opisthosoma, that contains serially arranged coelomic spaces separated by septa and bears external paired chaeta
Chaeta

A chaeta or cheta is a chitinous bristle or seta found on annelid worms such as the earthworm, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates....
e.

Vestimentiferans

Like other tube worms, vestimentiferans are marine and benthic. Riftia pachyptila, a vestimentiferan, is known only from the hydrothermal vent
Hydrothermal vent

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure vent in a planet's surface from which Geothermal heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcano active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspot ....
 systems. The vestimentiferans possess an anterior first body part called the obturaculum. Their main trunk of the body bears winglike extensions, the vestimentum, from which their name is derived. Also, unlike other siboglinids that never have a digestive tract, they have one that they completely lose during metamorphosis
Metamorphosis

.Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically developmental biology after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell cell growth#Cell reproduction and cell differentiation....
. They feed primarily on symbiotic hydrogen sulfide- or methane-oxidizing bacteria
Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
 living in an internal organ, the trophosome. One gram of trophosome tissue can contain one billion bacteria. It is not completely understood how the worms instigate their relationship with the bacteria. One theory is that the very young worm has a vent on its body permitting the entry of the bacteria from the water. Their body is divided into four regions; the cephalic lobe, forepart, trunk, and opisthosoma
Opisthosoma

The opisthosoma is the posterior portion of the arachnids body behind the prosoma . The number of segments and appendages on the opisthosoma vary....
.

The first specimen was dredged from the waters of what is now Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
 in 1900. These specimens were given to French zoologist Maurice Caullery
Maurice Caullery

Maurice Jules Gaston Corneille Caullery , Paris) was a France biologist.Caullery specialised in parasitic protozoans and marine invertebrates....
, who studied them for nearly 50 years.

Genera in the family Siboglinidae

  • Birsteinia
  • Choanophorus
  • Cyclobrachia
  • Lamellibrachia
    Lamellibrachia

    Lamellibrachia is a genus of tube worms related to the giant tube worm, Riftia pachyptila. It lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons are leaking out of the seafloor....
  • Lamellisabella
  • Osedax
    Osedax

    Osedax is a genus of deep-sea siboglinid polychaetes, commonly called zombie or bone-eating worms. Osedax is Latin for "bone-eating", the name alluding to how the worms bore into the bones of whale carcasses to reach enclosed lipids, on which they rely for sustanence....
  • Paraescarpia
  • Ridgeia
  • Riftia
  • Siboglinoides
  • Siboglinum
  • Volvobrachia