Sharon Hill
Complicated biological machine
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2014
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- 1,860
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
The Mysterious Return Of Glacier Ice Worms
Small black flecks suddenly appear on the previously blank expanse of white. The glacier's surface quickly transforms as more and more tiny black creatures emerge. The ice worms have returned, snaking in between ice crystals and shimmering in the sun.These thread-like worms, each only about an inch long, wiggle up en masse in the summertime, late in the afternoon, to do — what? Scientists don't know. It's just one of many mysteries about these worms, which have barely been studied, even though they're the most abundant critter living up there in the snow and ice.
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/13/1011...ns-the-mysterious-return-of-glacier-ice-worms
This article doesn't say it but it appears they are enchytraeid annelids of the genus Mesenchytraeus.
They only live on glaciers. Weird. More https://glaciers.nichols.edu/iceworm/