Creatures like to live in 'knitting furnace'

Scientists have found worms that live in seabed hot water craters that are able to adapt to the highest temperatures among all known animals.

The worm lives around the hot water spray.( Photo: Livescience )

Examining the Paralvinella sulfincola species from Washington's deep waters off the Pacific Ocean, the researchers found that if selected, these worms prefer to find places where the burn temperature is 45-55 degrees Celsius.

In the air, organisms can still tolerate this temperature, but in water, they are dead to most organisms, because water leads to better heat in the body. For example, a bathtub will become unbearable if it exceeds 40 degrees Celsius.

In the laboratory, these worms chose to live in areas of the lake with a temperature of 50 degrees C for the entire 7-hour experiment period. This period is much longer than the 15-30 minute exposure time of other high temperature animals, in which half of them die.

" Unlike many species that find hot refugees, meaning that they are completely resistant to high temperatures, these worms really like temperatures around 50 ^° C, " said Peter Girguis, assistant professor of advanced biology. chemistry at Harvard University, said. (Some bacterial species can tolerate much higher temperatures).

Scientists believe that this hobby may be due to food, because the Paralvinella sulfincola worm can fill the carpet of bacteria that breed around the underwater hot water holes.

T. An