polychaete worms
Polychaetes are a very common and diverse class of worms with over 10,000 species described so far. They can be found in tubes and burrows in the sand and mud of the beach to the depths of the ocean or even roaming around in the water. The word "polchaeta" means "many bristles". Quite the same with the other worms in the phylum. Some of them can extend one to three meters in length.
polychaete worms muscle system
Some polychaetes have the ablity to roam with well developed muscles that allow to move by swimmming, crawling and burrowing with the aid of parapodia, which are paired, un-joined lateral outgrowths from the bodies of two different invertebrate groups, mainly marine in habitat. Burrowers often have a muscular proscis to aid in digging. other are sedetary and just bloom, they contain tubes to suck in nutreients. Their parapodia are often adapted for circulating water in the tube.Permanent tube-dwellers have softer and less muscular bodies and they frequently lose the septa between segments.This allows for adjustment of hydrostatic pressure within the worm, which is important for functions such as anchoring the end of the body housed in its tube.
Below is part of a documentary about Reef Life. The beginning of the video is worthwhile because of its nice footage to polychaete worms but it then goes off into sea cucumbers which is as interesting.
Below is part of a documentary about Reef Life. The beginning of the video is worthwhile because of its nice footage to polychaete worms but it then goes off into sea cucumbers which is as interesting.