Re: methane ice worms

Glenn.Morton (XDEGRM@ORYX.COM)
Fri, 7 Nov 97 12:55:04 CDT

It has been pointed out to me that I was a little loose in my
terminology about tube worms. So I will correct my error.
The tube worms that have been know about for a few years
are not chemosynthetic, but live in a chemosynthetic
community. The bacteria are usually the chemosynths, not
the worms. The tube worms live off the bacteria who live
in their bodies and in the surrounding waters.

The new worms are a new discovery and there is much unknown at
this time. I had gotten the impression from the report that
these were possibly chemosynthetic worms. That may be
an erroneous assumption on my part. But anyway, this is
the first animal I know of that lives in such a wierd
environment.