WEBVTT - What Is the Longest Worm in the World? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.000 Welcome to Brainstye, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:11.719 brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. It's a skinny creature, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.040 not much wider than a number two pencil. Yet it's 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.759 one of the longest animals alive today, sometimes rivaling or 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.200 perhaps surpassing the mighty blue whale in length, which can 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:23.919 grow to a little more than a hundred feet or 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.000 thirty meters long. It has no heart, no spine, no 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.120 body segments. It lurks in mud, sand, and rocky crevices 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.680 around the North Atlantic. It's mucus is surprisingly toxic, and 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.000 when hunger strikes, it summons a winding branch like appendage 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:46.400 that gets turned inside out. Its name is Linneus longissimus, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.919 or the boot lace worm, and someday this marine oddity 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.520 might be enlisted to help farmers protect their crops. But 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.320 let's back up a little. In order to make any 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.680 sense of the bootlace worm, you have to take a 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.720 look at its odd branch on the Great Tree of life. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.520 The boot lace worm is the largest member of the 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:12.920 animal phylum Nemerdia, also known as ribbon worms or probiscus worms. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.640 This group includes about one thousand, two hundred documented species. 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.400 Unlike the more familiar earthworms, which areate our soil and 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.320 keep bait shops in business, bootlace worms do not have 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.800 segmented bodies. The blood of a ribbon worm is held 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.319 in a series of vessels. When the walls of these constrict, 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.160 the blood inside is pushed in one direction or another, 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.000 allowing it to circulate throughout the body. The normal muscle 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.800 contractions associated with swimming and crawling help this process. No 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.800 heart is required to keep the blood flowing. One defining 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.320 trait of the Nomerdia phylum is a tubular feeding structure 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:56.560 called the probiscus. Usually it's tucked away in a specialized pouch. However, 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.720 when the need arises, a ribbon worm applies pressure to 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.400 the area. The force drives the probiscus tube outside of 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.200 the body by quite literally flipping it inside out. All 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.239 of this can happen in a matter of seconds. Okay, 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.560 but why? Ribbon worms eat a variety of things. Some 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.760 are herbivores, but many eat things like crabs, snails, and 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.040 animal carcasses. Having a quick drop robiscus really helps these 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:28.359 legless animals catch and manipulate food. Sometimes the probiscus is 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.400 also used as a digging tool, and it can definitely 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.240 freak out predators who try to eat the worms. You 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.240 can't blame other creatures for feeling confused or even a 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.560 bit intimidated by the display. Certain ribbon worms can double 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:45.360 their body length just by whipping out their probiscus. Like most, 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.520 though not all, ribbon worms, the bootley sworm occurs in 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:53.160 marine habitats. They're indigenous to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:57.519 live around the coastlines of Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Ireland, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.640 Great Britain, and the Baltic Sea. The worms like to 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.560 bundle themselves up underneath large bowlders by the shore. Other 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.800 hangout spots include rock fissures, beds of kelp, and natural 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.600 seaside pools. You also might see them slithering around on 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:18.480 muddy beach sand further offshore. Bootleace worms frequent sunlit parts 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.079 of the ocean floor, winding their sinuous bodies through beds 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.560 of muck and seashells. Divers sometimes find them adrift in 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.520 the water as well. Bootlea sworms come in shades of 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.600 black and dark brown. Their skin might appear iridescent or striped, 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.840 at least to our fancy human eyes. A ribbon worms 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.280 can't see images like we can. Instead, they detect changes 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.880 in light conditions through primitive sensory eye spots. Though the 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.720 bootley sworm is only a quarter to half an inch wide, 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.120 that's about five to ten millimeters, it's one of the 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:54.320 longest known animals on the planet, full stop. They're usually 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.480 in the neighborhood of sixteen to thirty two feet long. 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.320 That's five to ten meters. Pretty respectable for a worm, 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.440 but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Specimens measuring 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.120 up to thirty meters long nearly a hundred feet have 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:12.040 been sighted. If the image of a wriggling worm longer 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.360 than a New York City bus disturbs you, maybe skip ahead. 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.440 Things are about to get even more mind blowing. The 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.279 carcass of a monstrous bootlace worm reportedly washed ashore in 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.160 Scotland during the year eighteen sixty four from end to end. 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.600 It was said to measure for wait for it, more 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:34.800 than a hundred and eighty feet or fifty five meters long. However, 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.400 claims like this should be taken with a grain of salt. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.880 The scientific community doesn't have any preserved specimens of a 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.239 bootlace worm measuring anywhere near that size. Also, because ribbon 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:49.080 worms in general are stretchable, elastic critters with bodies prone 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.920 to distortion, it can be hard to pin down their 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:58.360 maximum lengths. Anyway, if handling bootlace worms doesn't sound like 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.719 a pleasant experience, you're absolutely right toward off predators and 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:07.200 grabby people. The invertebrates release huge amounts of thick, foul 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:11.039 smelling mucus when they feel threatened, and there's more of 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.640 the substance than meets the eye or knows. Naturalists have 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.840 learned that the bootlace worms defensive mucus is loaded with 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.560 peptide toxins. Indeed, when a team examined the stuff in 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.320 twenty eighteen, they discovered an entirely new group of said toxins, 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.760 hitherto unknown to science. The researchers noted that the most 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.839 common of these peptides probably isn't poisonous to human beings 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.280 or other mammals, but crustaceans and cockroaches might want to 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.600 keep their distance. It's been shown to interfere with nerve 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.280 and muscle function in some crabs and roaches to the 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.200 point that it can leave the critters dead or permanently paralyzed, 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.960 so who knows. In the near future, products derived from 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.800 the bootlace worms stinky mucus may keep pest insects from 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.599 ruining farms and cash crops. The Stranger Things Have Happened 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.960 m Today's episode is based on the article bootleace worms 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.680 can grow longer than most whales on house toffworks dot Com. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.440 Written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production of I 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.800 Heart Radio and partnership with house toffworks dot Com, and 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.800 it is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.800 my heart Radio. Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:20.720 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.