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Christmas Tree Worm — printable fact sheet
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Christmas Tree Worm
Spirobranchus giganteus
The two spiralling "trees" are all you ever see, and they are not the animal: they are the radioles, feathery crowns that do double duty as gills and as a food-collecting fan, sweeping plankton and particles down a groove to the mouth. The worm itself is a soft tube-dweller hidd…
Did you know?
- If threatened, the Christmas Tree Worm can retract its plumes into its tube in less than a second to avoid predators.
- Because the worm irritates the coral around it, corals hosting Christmas tree worms have in some studies shown lower bleaching and less damage from crown-of-thorns starfish — the worm may be paying rent by deterring the coral's enemies. A worm has been described as having a photoreceptor system on its radioles, which is how it detects the shadow of a fish without any eyes on its head. Two crowns are not two worms: each animal has a pair, arranged around the mouth.
What I learned
Draw the christmas tree worm
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