# @seed on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/BghL8Q9jR3B
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34248021-seed-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/051f2cfcad.jpg
- **Posted:** 2018-03-19T20:40:09.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Seed (@seed) — https://gondola.cc/seed

## Caption

Meet the #giant tube worm (Riftia pachyptila).⠀⠀⠀
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It lives in the deepest depths of the #ocean, untouched by sunlight, and thrives in 400°C water. Growing upwards of 8 feet tall, it bizarrely has no mouth, no gut, and no anus.⠀⠀⠀
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Yup.⠀⠀⠀
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It turns out, half of the giant tube worm's body weight is in an organ called the #trophosome, and it's filled with #bacteria (about a #billion per gram of tissue). Parallel to sunlight-powered #photosynthesis, these bacteria peform #chemosynthesis, oxidizing #sulphides pumped out by the ocean's #hydrothermal vents and using the liberated #energy to create #carbon.⠀⠀⠀
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So, basically, giant tube worms don't need to eat, since their bacterial #symbionts provide them everything they need, in a place where we imagined nothing could survive.⠀⠀⠀
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Source | Volcanoes of the Deep Sea⠀⠀⠀
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Source | Dr. Meredith L. Jones holding a preserved sample of a giant tube worm. Photo by Harold E. Dougherty; Image from Smithsonian Institution Archives

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## Tags

sulphides, hydrothermal, bacteria, energy, trophosome, symbionts, photosynthesis, ocean, giant, chemosynthesis, carbon, billion

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