Chaetopterus
Parchment Tube Worm
This stunning creature is a Parchment Tube Worm or Chaetopterus. Created by Devin Reilly and I during our residency Aquariam Gallery In New Orleans, Loiusiana for the Ginormous Puppet Parade. This weird little worm lives in the sand in a tube it creates. The worm uses it’s paddle-like appendages to create a flow of water through its tube, and by secreting a mucous film the worm is able to trap very small organisms like plankton and protozoans to eat them.
I found this Parchment Worm’s tube on a beach in Connecticut so I wanted to find out what lives inside it.
These amazing photos (above) by Alexander Semenov show us what of the Parchment Tube worm actually looks like.
