Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute used their robotic explorer ROV SuBastian to capture a bizarre bristle-like sea creature in the Chile Margin. This polychaete has several body segment, with each sporting a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia covered in bristles called chaetae.
Some worms glow due to bioluminescence, while this one has protein structures in the bristles that make them iridescent. Despite how odd they look, polychaetes actually play a vital role throughout the global ocean ecoystem, from heat-tolerant extremophiles at hydrothermal vents to the bone-eating Osedax worms that cycle nutrients.
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The international science team is exploring along the margin, a nearshore deep-sea feature where a submerged continental shelf extends from the country’s west coast and drops steeply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean. It runs the entire length of South America due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the South American plate,” said the researchers.
[Source]
