Mollusc · bivalve

Methane mussel

Gigantidas childressi (formerly Bathymodiolus childressi)

PacificAtlanticIndianSouthernArctic A single ocean

Depth

About 530 to 2,200 m, in the Gulf of Mexico

Size

Up to about 12 cm

Diet

Methane, thanks to the bacteria in its gills

Zone

The sea floor · 200 – 3,500 m

Key facts

• The bacteria in its gills eat methane, the gas that seeps from the seafloor, and feed the mussel.
• It forms carpets around a brine lake 650 m deep. This very salty water is so dense that a submarine can float on it.
• Its larvae rise all the way into sunlit surface waters before coming back down.
• Its populations along 550 km of slope form a single large genetic family.

Verified sources

1. BOEM, Fisher, Gulf of Mexico deep chemosynthetic communities
2. NOAA Ocean Explorer, Methane mussels at Brine Pool NR1
3. SeaLifeBase, Bathymodiolus childressi
4. Arellano 2009, University of Oregon, larval ecology of Bathymodiolus childressi
5. Carney et al. 2006, population structure of Bathymodiolus childressi (Penn State)

In the game: To observe

In the same zone

Centenarian tubewormLamellibrachia luymesi Vent octopusVulcanoctopus hydrothermalis Bone-eating snailRubyspira osteovora Methane ice wormSirsoe methanicola (formerly Hesiocaeca methanicola) Bamboo coralKeratoisis sp. (family Isididae, broadly defined) Bubblegum coralParagorgia arborea