Nov. 13, 2013 — Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and their colleagues are unraveling the mechanisms behind a little-known marine worm that produces a dazzling bioluminescent display in the form of puffs of blue light released into seawater.
Found around the world in muddy environments, from shallow bays to deeper canyons, the light produced by the Chaetopterus marine worm—commonly known as the “parchment tube worm” due to the opaque, cocoon-like cylinders where it makes its home—is secreted as a slimy bioluminescent mucus.
The mucus, which the worms are able to secrete out of any part of their body, hasn’t been studied by scientists in more than 50 years. But two recent studies have helped reignite the quest to decode the inner workings of the worm’s bioluminescence.
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