Tiny worms have loud arguments under the sea, study finds

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KUSHIMOTO, Wakayama Prefecture–Researchers said they recorded the world’s first known sounds from a segmented marine worm, a popping noise equivalent in volume to humans snapping their fingers.

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The sounds from Leocratides kimuraorum are made when the tiny worms use their mouths in fights over territory, the researchers said.

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The discovery was made after Isao Hirabayashi, chief curator at Kushimoto Marine Park in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, heard some strange sounds while he was taking care of the worms.

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Hirabayashi and Ryutaro Goto, assistant professor of ocean biology at Kyoto University, then recorded the creature’s clicking sounds with an underwater microphone.

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“From now, we are eager to clarify what the sounds are for and the mechanism of how they are created,” Goto said.

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The research paper was published in the digital edition of Current Biology, a U.S. science journal, at: (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.05.047).

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