Deep sea worm fights ‘poison with poison’ to survive high arsenic and sulfide levels (IMAGE)

PLOS

Deep sea worm fights ‘poison with poison’ to survive high arsenic and sulfide levels

Caption

Image of the alvinellid worm, Paralvinella hessleri. A P. hessleri colonized hydrothermal vent in Iheya north hydrothermal field. The vent fauna showed apparent variation along the environmental gradients. The areas close to hydrothermal venting were covered with white mucus matt (P. hessleri colonies). The squad lobsters Shinkaia crosnieri occupied the areas surrounding the P. hessleri colonies. Bathymodiolinae mussels stayed further away.

Credit

Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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License

CC BY

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