DEEP-SEA PAGES
MICROBES, UNIDENTIFIED ANIMALS, WORMS, TUNICATES

Paul H. Yancey, Whitman College
Updated Oct. 2009!

If you copy and use photos, please WRITE for PERMISSION first at .
Some of these photos are mine, others are ones I took from the ROV Oceanic Explorer's camera monitor.

If you can help us identify species with a *, please contact me at the email just above.
Note: many of the specimens have been deposited at the Field Museum in Chicago and loans of the material can be arranged through Janet Voight (voight@fmnh.org) or John Slapcinsky (Slapcin@fmnh.org)

Return to my MAIN DEEP-SEA PAGE for details on animal collection and for TOPIC CONTENTS (or use pull-down menu, right).

OTHER TOPICS
The term "microbes" here refers to both archaea and bacteria. In vent and seep habitats, these are often primary producers, living off the energy of inorganic minerals and gases. Some are methanotrophs, utilizing methane (natural gas) for energy. Worms fall into many phyla--such as (incomplete list) sipunculids (unsegmented peanut worms), polychaetes (segmented relatives of earthworms) including vestimentiferans (gutless worms with bacterial symbionts), hemichordates (acorn worms), and nematodes (microscopic roundworms). Nematodes (none pictured here) may be the most diverse phylum on Earth, with the number of species in the deep mud rivaling that of insects on land.

Tunicates are in the subphylum Urochordata in the Chordate phylum, along with our group the Vertebrata. Commonly known as sea squirts, these animals have a notochord in their larval stage, just as human embryos do. They have two siphons--intake and outflow--for filter feeding on plankton.

Unknowns are various animals we cannot identify.

A. OREGON BATHYAL AND ABYSSAL: WORMS, UNKNOWNS, TUNICATES
(a) = abyssal plain (2300-2850m), (b) = bathyal zone--continental slope (1800-2000m) off Newport, Oregon; (mb) = Monterey Bay canyon, 3000m. CLICK PICTURE to the right for composite picture of several unidentified/unknown animals-->
Sipunculid (left) +
Polychaete(a)
Glycera sp
Polychaetes: Seamouse Aphrodita (right) & Travisia sp
(a) (has H2S odor)
Polychaete=? (mb)*
Egg Capsule of shark??
(a)*
Grape Anemone
Oractis diomedeae??
(b)*
Anemone?
Echiuroid? Priapulid? (b)*
Sea Cucumber?
(a)*
 Unidentified*; Possible sea cucumber or tunicate; from 1200 m off Eureka, Calif.
Mystery animal* from 2800m, Monterey Bay Canyon (mb), 2009
LEFT: unidentified tunicate* (mb, 2000m)
NOTE: some pictures contain a ruled centimeter scale.
Note that the structure of "Anemone??," a perfect sphere, appears identical to the base of "Anemone?"
*Species with "*" are ones we haven't identified fully.

B. METHANE SEEPS: MICROBES, WORMS, UNKNOWNS
--on Calif. Eel-River Seeps off Eureka (510-525m) and Hydrate Ridge off Newport Oregon (600-890m); submersible video and microscope images

....
Beggiatoa (and other species of) bacteria in mats and filaments**
--microbes using sulfide and methane (Eel River, Hydrate Ridge)
Worm (new species?) living inside large carbonate rock formed by microbial metabolism with methane
Seep worm
Acorn worms* (60x) found
in mud near methane vent
...
Polychaete worms, including Dorvelleids, living off seep bacteria
Cold-seep vestimentiferan(b) Lamellibrachia (lives off bacterial symbionts that live off gases); see SEEPS/VENTS page for more on these and on hydrothermal-vent worms
Eggsac of an unknown animal Unidentified greenish bushy thing*
**The long strands may be enteropneusts (animals)
Linda Kuhnz of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Inst. has images of burrowing (infaunal) deepsea animals from 900 - 3600 m off central California.