All printables
Sea Mouse — printable fact sheet
Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.
Creature Atlas
Animal Fact Sheet
Name: ____________________
Date: ____________________
Sea Mouse
Aphrodita aculeata
The sea mouse (Aphrodita aculeata) is not a mouse but a stout polychaete worm of North Atlantic and Mediterranean seabeds, usually 10 to 20 centimetres long, that spends most of its time buried head-down in mud. It is covered by a dense felt of grey bristles that resemble matted…
Did you know?
- Despite their soft appearance, sea mice are voracious predators that can consume other polychaete worms nearly their own size.
- The sea mouse's iridescent bristles are one of the few natural photonic crystals with near-perfect reflectance, and their fine structure has been copied for fibre-optics research. Because it is normally buried and nocturnal, nobody is certain what the colour is for, and it may simply be a by-product of the bristle's mechanical structure. It has no eyes worth speaking of, navigating by touch and chemistry. The bristles are also a defence: they detach easily and are irritating, and gulls and fish that mouth a sea mouse usually spit it out.
What I learned
Draw the sea mouse
© Creature Atlas · www.creatureatlas.com · Free for classroom & personal use
Want the whole set?
Get printable fact-sheet packs, coloring pages, and classroom worksheet bundles for dozens of animals — ready to download and print.
Browse printable packsGet a free printable each week
Join the newsletter for a new Creature of the Week + printables.