回复 171# misai
好吧。。偷懒了那么久。。。
这是去年发现的。。
炸弹虫。。green bombers
 
Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have announced in Sciencethe discovery of seven new species of deep sea worms, five of whichdrop orb-like parts of their body which cause a brilliant green displayof bioluminescence. For this reason researchers have nicknamed them the‘green bombers’. The worms are not just new species, but a clade ofanimals entirely unknown to science until now.
The worms live at depthsbetween 1,800 and 3,700 meters (5,900 and 12,140 feet) and like mostspecies at this depth are not big, ranging from 18-93 millimeters (0.7to 3.6 inches). They are mostly transparent, and move themselves aroundwith fans of bristles.
The 'bombs' are fluid-filled spheres which burst into lightwhen thrown from the animal, causing an intense glow for a few seconds.Once used, the worms are able to regenerate new bombs for later use.The researchers believe that the worms' ability to throw 'green bombs'off of its body may be used to defend itself from predators, such as adistraction, though no one knows for sure.
"We found a whole new group of fairly large, extraordinary animals thatwe never knew anything about before," said Osborn, a post-doctoralresearcher in the Marine Biology Research Division at Scripps. "Theseare not rare animals. Often when we see them they number in thehundreds. What's unique is that their habitat is really hard tosample."
At these depths, researchers employ a specially-designed remotely operated submersible vehicle down to sample such creatures.
"The depths between 1,000 and 4,000 meters (3,280 and 13,120 feet) formthe biggest habitat on Earth and also the least explored," addedScripps Professor Greg Rouse, a coauthor of the paper and curator ofScripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection. "With fairly limited time onsubmersible vehicles, mainly off California, we've picked up seven newspecies. It goes to show that we have much more exploration ahead andwho knows what else we'll discover?"
Scientists did not see the worms dropping their bombs in thewild, due to the lights of the submersible vehicle, but they were ableto witness the light show when the animals were captured and broughtaboard a ship. The ancestors of these swimming worms live on the mud ofthe sea floor, like many other species of deep sea worm. Rousehypothesizes that the bombs were once gills.
"The relatives have gills that appear to be in exactly the same placesas the bombs," said Rouse. "The gills can fall off very easily sothere's a similarity of being detachable, but for some reason the gillshave transformed to become these glowing little detachable spheres."
简介：
这种会丢青色发亮炸弹的虫是在1800-3700m深的海域找到的。。。 炸弹虫本身是透明体，而且青色的炸弹也会爆发且发出青色的光体。。青炸弹的用处还没被肯定， 可能是用来支开敌人。 科学家怀疑那些炸弹可能是他们的鳃，而且容易脱落。 因为特别的原因他们的鳃变成椭圆型。。。
除此以外，科学家也发现另外6种深海毛毛虫 (polycheate),如下：
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发表于 2-11-2009 12:14 PM
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