Hello! :)

     The tube worms living near deep-sea hydrothermal vents belong to the phylum Pogonophora
("beard bearers").  My reference is "Living Invertebrates", Pearse and Buchsbaum, 1987 (5th
printing 1992), published by Blackwell/Boxwood.  It was the text used very recently for an
invertebrate zoology I took.  Members of this group have no mouth or digestive tract.  Experiments
have shown that these organisms might nourish themselves by absorbing sugars and amino acids from
the surrounding seawater through their body surface, as is true of some parasites.  Pogonophores
also contain endosymbiotic bacteria in highly vascularized tissue (trophosome) in the posterior
part of their body.  Special enzymes responsible for carbon dioxide fixation are concentrated in
the trophosome and are of a type not found in animals, but which is common in bacteria.  By fixing
carbon dioxide into more complex organic molecules, it is possible that the symbiotic bacteria not
only fed themselves, but the pogonophores too.  In the nutrient-poor habitats where pogonophores
live, it is possible that the bacteria could be the sole source of nourishment for the organisms.
Just saw this post and thought I'd put my two cents in. :)

Tim Blackwood
Grand Rapids, Minnesota

--- "Cramer, John" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> What's that about no true gut?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mark & peta [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 8:54 AM
> > To:   [log in to unmask]
> > Subject:      Re: Hydrothermal vent LIVE webcast!!!
> >
> > Ross, Greeting from earth,,,,, You didn't specify if this was a deep see
> > vent ( a smoker as they are known) or a thermal vent such as those at
> > Yellowstone? As for the clams if they find them in the vents like
> > Yellowstone's  that would be an real exciting find , if they find the clam
> > inside the vents of the deep sea smokers that would be extraordinary also
> > as
> > they usually life at the fringe of the thermal area , did you now that
> > those
> > clams or tube worms have no true "gut" and are very interesting , in fact
> > the whole bioscape surrounding the deep sea vents are truly unique, many
> > new
> > life forms are interwoven in the biomass .....I can go on and on but since
> > nobody reads  my mail I'll keep it this short ....thank you for your
> > output
> > Sir Ross. ferret
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ross Mayhew" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 12:41 AM
> > Subject: Hydrothermal vent LIVE webcast!!!
> >
> >
> > > Just thought some folks would be interested in a LIVE webcast of an
> > > expedition to a hydrothermal vent today: go to
> > > http://vanseg-1.arc.nasa.gov/AB26APR01-01.ram at 10 Pacific time (In
> > > Florida-land that is 1 p.m.) and with any luck you'll see something
> > > truly fabulous - perhaps even including some foot-long vent clams...
> > >
> > > >From the Spring-at-Last (got up to 14 or 15 yesterday!) North;
> > > Ross.
> > >


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