Biologists discovered mysterious sea larvae

A series of microscopic organisms that can be completely new to science are making scientists extremely excited.

The new little known creatures are named horseshoe worms. Adults mature in sediments or rocks, or corals, build a tube to protect their soft bodies, while their heads have tentacles waving in the water to filter food particles. Small from water to filter.

Multi-shape image of horseshoe worm.

This strange creature species can be found in most oceans in the world but has little attention. Most adults have a length of about 2 cm to about 20cm. Small creatures were first known in 1856. However, in fact many evidence shows that it was first described in 1846.

"The global diversity of small, rare marine animals such as horseshoeworms has been underestimated. We don't know the animals out there and we even know less about their role in these. ocean in the world, " said biologist Rachel Collin of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

So, to try and clarify this issue, Collin and her team collected quite a few horseshoe worm larvae.

Not only that, scientists also collected 23 horseshoe larvae from Panama Bay on the Pacific coast and 29 other larvae from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast, solving their DNA sequences and comparing them to information of adult horseshoe worms ever stored in DNA GenBank database. Scientists are now able to distinguish 3 different types of horseshoe worms from Panama Bay and 4 types from Bocas del Toro.