Is a Christmas tree worm a vertebrate or invertebrate?
Christmas tree worms (Spirobranchus giganteus) are a type of polychaete, a group of segmented worms that contains over 13,000 species. And just like their cousins the “sea mice” and feather dusters, these unassuming invertebrates put on quite the eye-catching display.
What is the classification of a Christmas tree worm?
Polychaete
Why are Christmas tree worms different colors?
Christmas tree worms come in a variety of bright colors. These worms are sedentary, meaning that once they find a place they like, they don’t move much. In fact, while the colorful crowns of these worms are visible, most of their bodies are anchored in burrows that they bore into live coral.
Is a Christmas tree worm a fish?
Christmas tree worms are actually considered to be sedentary sea creatures as they stay in one place their whole lives. More specifically, these worms live on the heads of corals. Here, they will build a protective tube.
What eats the Christmas tree worm?
What are their predators? These tiny tube worms are protecting themselves simply by hiding in their tube but of course, there are some predators in the ocean they feed on them. Usually, sea urchins, crabs and shrimps eat Christmas tree worms as well as some larger reef fish.
Are Christmas tree worms dangerous?
Christmas tree worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, are not dangerous to humans.
What eats Spirobranchus giganteus?
Their most common predators are shrimps, crabs, and sea urchins. Some tropical reef fish eat them, especially the butterflyfish. Usually, their predators eat their plumes, and if some parts remain, they will regrow within a few weeks.
Do Christmas tree worms eat coral?
Christmas Tree Worms Effect on Corals As the worms feed, or when threatened, they retreat down into their protective tube, which is securely closed by an operculum (a sort of lid). He found that in 21% of cases, the worm had indeed caused damage to the corals.
How does a Christmas tree worm breathe?
These animals live on coral reefs in tropical and subtropical waters around the world, building tiny, tubular homes with their own secretions of calcium carbonate. They emerge from these tubes to filter feed, procreate and breathe with a part of their body called the branchial crown.
Are Christmas tree worms consumers?
In fact, Christmas tree worms are actually considered macrodecomposers because they are larger than most decomposers. There are many other animals, especially within the sea that are considered to be decomposers.
How does the presence of Christmas tree worms affect the predation of the corals in which they are embedded?
In this case, Porites coral colonies provide protection for the worms and a location for the worms’ suspension feeding. The Christmas tree worms protect the coral from predation by the Crown of Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci)5.
Where do Christmas worms come from?
Christmas tree worms are widely distributed throughout the world’s tropical oceans. They have been known to occur from the Caribbean to the Indo-Pacific.
Why do earthworms have setae?
Bristles, called setae, are located on each segment of the earthworm’s body. They prevent the earthworm from slipping backwards.
How can you tell a male from a female earthworm?
Earthworms are hermaphrodites; that is, they have both male and female sexual organs. The sexual organs are located in segments 9 to 15. Earthworms have one or two pairs of testes contained within sacs. The two or four pairs of seminal vesicles produce, store and release the sperm via the male pores.
How many hearts do earthworms have?
Heartbeats: Worms don’t have just one heart. They have FIVE! But their hearts and circulatory system aren’t as complicated as ours — maybe because their blood doesn’t have to go to so many body parts.
Do earthworms fertilize their own eggs?
Earthworms are hermaphrodites (both female and male organs within the same individual) but generally cannot fertilize their own eggs. They have testes, seminal vesicles and male pores which produce, store and release the sperm, and ovaries and ovipores.