Texas, the new Florida
If you have your life together and worry for nothing, sorry to tell you: Venomous sea worms are washing up on Texas beaches, and, if touched, they’ll make you feel like your skin is on fire.
The bristle worms — known to scientists as Amphinome rostrata — have recently found themselves along the Texas coast, according to the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. A scientist at the institute who found one said he hasn’t seen them in three to four years.
An April 14 Facebook post from the Institute calmly laid out the situation: “WARNING!!! Your worst nightmares are washing up right now in the form of fireworms!”
Marine bristle worms are found all over the world, from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the scuba-diving haven known as the Poor Knights Islands, located east of the Tutukākā coast in New Zealand, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
The worms were first described 250 years ago by Prussian naturalist Peter Simon Pallas on page 106 of his 1766 Latin book “Miscellanea Zoologica,” according to NIWA. They can grow to be about eight inches long.
Each worm is composed of 60 to 150 different segments covered by hollow bristles that easily get stuck in human skin and deposit painful venom, said Jace Tunnell, the institute’s director of community engagement.
The worms live between two and a half and nine years, he said. They reproduce sexually and asexually, meaning, as he put it, “I could cut this thing in half and it could regrow.” Their predators are fish and crabs...........
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/08/28/fire-bristle-worm-amphinome-rostrata/
If you have your life together and worry for nothing, sorry to tell you: Venomous sea worms are washing up on Texas beaches, and, if touched, they’ll make you feel like your skin is on fire.
The bristle worms — known to scientists as Amphinome rostrata — have recently found themselves along the Texas coast, according to the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. A scientist at the institute who found one said he hasn’t seen them in three to four years.
An April 14 Facebook post from the Institute calmly laid out the situation: “WARNING!!! Your worst nightmares are washing up right now in the form of fireworms!”
Marine bristle worms are found all over the world, from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the scuba-diving haven known as the Poor Knights Islands, located east of the Tutukākā coast in New Zealand, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
The worms were first described 250 years ago by Prussian naturalist Peter Simon Pallas on page 106 of his 1766 Latin book “Miscellanea Zoologica,” according to NIWA. They can grow to be about eight inches long.
Each worm is composed of 60 to 150 different segments covered by hollow bristles that easily get stuck in human skin and deposit painful venom, said Jace Tunnell, the institute’s director of community engagement.
The worms live between two and a half and nine years, he said. They reproduce sexually and asexually, meaning, as he put it, “I could cut this thing in half and it could regrow.” Their predators are fish and crabs...........
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/08/28/fire-bristle-worm-amphinome-rostrata/