Mystery life form filmed in US sewer

July 1st, 2009

Water companies often send robotic cameras down sewers and surface water drains to inspect blockages or assess damage. This one found something weird. As surface water drains often empty directly into natural watercourses, sometimes aquatic life gets washed up the pipe by floods or tidal flow. Some have suggested these weird blobs are freshwater bryozoans, a coral-like colony animal. However, Timothy S. Wood, an expert on freshwater bryozoa and an officer with the International Bryozoology Association, had this to say:

Thanks for the video – I had not see it before. No, these are not bryozoans! They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting.

What do you think?

Entry Filed under: Awesome Science Videos