Annelid · marine worm

Arctic seep threadworm

Sclerolinum contortum

PacificAtlanticIndianSouthernArctic Found in 3 oceans

Depth

About 750 to 3,000 m, on mud volcanoes and hydrothermal vents

Size

About 5 to 10 cm, less than 0.5 mm thick

Diet

Fed by bacteria that live in its body and draw their energy from sulfur

Zone

The sea floor · 200 – 3,500 m

Key facts

• It forms dense fields at the Loki’s Castle hydrothermal site, 2,300 m deep.
• Its tube is about twice as long as its body.
• It is found in the Arctic and in the Southern Ocean, nearly 16,000 km apart.
• At the Håkon Mosby mud volcano, in the Barents Sea, it lives 1,264 m deep.

Verified sources

1. Pedersen et al. 2010, Discovery of a black smoker vent field on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (Nature Communications)
2. Ramirez-Llodra et al. 2024, Fauna of Loki’s Castle vent field (Scientific Reports)
3. Eilertsen et al. 2015, A chemosynthetic weed (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
4. Smirnov et al. 2013, Sclerolinum contortum du golfe du Mexique (Organisms Diversity & Evolution)
5. Lösekann et al. 2008, Endosymbioses in siboglinid tubeworms from an Arctic cold seep
6. WWF Arctic : The search for new species in the Arctic’s deep ocean ridges

In the game: To observe

In the same zone

Ten-legged sea spiderDecolopoda australis Antarctic sea starOdontaster validus Giant Antarctic sea starMacroptychaster accrescens Antarctic sea urchinSterechinus neumayeri Abyssal Antarctic dragonfishBathydraco scotiae Emerald rockcodTrematomus bernacchii