WEBVTT - From the Vault: Christmas Trees Beneath the Sea 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.560 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.479 name is Robert Lamb. Merry Christmas. Today is Christmas, so 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.760 we are running a vault episode. This is going to 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.480 be our holiday episode from last year, originally published twelve twelve, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:23.160 twenty twenty four, and it is Christmas Trees beneath the Sea, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.200 So don't worry. We're not talking about the dumping of 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.960 old Christmas trees, certainly not artificial ones. We're going to 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.760 be talking about natural organisms in the watery depths of Earth, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.760 so otions that in varying ways bring to mind a 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.959 holiday decorated tree. Let's jump right in. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.279 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:58.560 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.279 My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and. 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.399 We have a special holiday episode here for you today. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.840 It does concern Christmas trees of a sort. We have, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.520 of course talked about Christmas trees plenty of times on 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.119 Stuff to Blow Your Mind in the past. I think 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.280 the most recent installment being an episode we did a 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.920 couple of years back. Holiday inventions, Christmas tree lights, tinsel 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.640 and angels. We've talked about Christmas trees and connection to 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.760 sacred trees in the past. But today we're going to 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.560 find our Christmas trees in an all new location. We 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:35.600 are going to venture beneath the sea. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.640 That's right, it's Yule tied in the deep today. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.039 Yes, deep down in the ocean. In some cases, deep 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.720 in the ocean where it's said that Cuthulhu waits dreaming. 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.520 But just maybe maybe he's dreaming of a white Christmas. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.240 He's dreaming of that red writer be begun. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.080 Yeah, so that'd we come around to Christmas trees under 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.520 the sea? Well, credit where credits due. We had a 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.600 couple of lead ends to this. One of the organisms 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:05.720 we're going to cover here is one that was already 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.840 on your radar and is also something that I've observed 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.520 in the wild before. And then another source of inspiration 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.280 was a twenty twenty one Jay Store Daily article by 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:21.520 Sierra Garcia titled Meet the Christmas Tree Doppelgangers of the Sea. Now, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.680 obviously with a title like that, you know I'm going 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.040 to give the post a second look. You know. Doppelganger 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.000 of course, being the German double walker, the uncanny, sinister 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:36.520 and perhaps doom harboragering duplication of self. Christmas, with its 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.919 hidden depths of darkness, seems a great place for such 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.799 creatures to wander around. But of course it's not about 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:47.160 actual doppelgangers. It's about things in the ocean that may 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.959 or may not resemble Christmas trees, depending on how much 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:51.880 you want to see Christmas in them. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.239 You know, my daughter is two years old now, and 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:57.880 so this is going to be her first, her first 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.440 really conscious Christmas, the one that I think she's really 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.520 going to be very aware of. And of course at 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:08.360 her age, I'm constantly thinking about, like the recognition of objects, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.639 because she likes to point to things and either ask 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.000 what's that or to say what the thing she's pointing 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.120 at is, And a lot of times it's not the 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.600 thing she says it is, but you can see the resemblance. 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.280 And so I'm constantly thinking about the minimum visual criteria 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.320 to associate a shape or some kind of sight with 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.359 an object or a concept that she already has. And 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.160 one of them now is Christmas trees, and so like 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.240 I'm wondering what kind of triangular thing this week? You know, 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.240 she'll point out is that Christmas tree? And we're sort 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:38.680 of playing the same game now, aren't we. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.840 Yeah, yeah, I mean you've got to call these organisms something, right, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.840 We've encountered examples of this before. You know, everything is 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.800 an apple, according to Western explorers, some version of an apple, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.880 be it pine or otherwise. But you know, on another level, 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.400 all of this kind of connects with the ancient notion 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.520 that we've discussed in the show before, the idea that 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.520 if if you look into the water, if you gaze 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.680 deep into it, you're going to inevitably fine twins of 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.160 things that exist above the water. You're going to find 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.760 lions of the sea, cows of the sea, and so 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.680 much more so. Maybe it's not all that off the 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.599 mark anyway, that there are doppelgangers Christmas tree doppelgangers in 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.760 the deep, because we have Christmas trees up here, so 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.239 they must exist in the mirror realm beneath the waves. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:28.920 That's right. Well, are you ready to kick things off 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.200 with my example here? 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:32.800 Yes? Yes, this is a fun one. This is probably 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.680 the one that's instantly coming to some folks mind out there, 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.119 especially folks who have done a little snorkeling and scuba diving. 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.400 Well, we're going to start in the place you might 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.880 expect for undersea Christmas Trees, and that is James Cameron's 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.120 Avatar from two thousand and nine. I know, I was 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:53.000 actually so reading an article about this that was LinkedIn 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.400 that Jastore Daily you mentioned earlier. But this was a 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.960 short article that was mainly just promoting a conference presentation, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.920 but it had some interesting behind the scenes details about the 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.920 making of Avatar. It was called of Plants in Film 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.880 by Tanya Marion and the Botanical Artist twenty fifteen, and 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.520 so it was talking about when Cameron was setting out 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.960 to design the world of Avatar, he wanted to achieve 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.320 some degree of biological plausibility, and the movie is set 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.520 on a planet. Actually, I think it's supposed to be 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:29.200 a moon called Pandora, which he was originally imagining as 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.040 a place with low light conditions and a toxic atmosphere, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.560 so it would have kind of different different material pressures 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.080 applying to the biosphere, maybe leading to different forms of 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.240 life than we have here on Earth. And so in 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.840 trying to dream up these life forms, he consulted with 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:50.960 a plant physiologist from UC Riverside named Jody Holt to 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.120 help imagine the botany of the alien biosphere. It's kind 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.080 of interesting how the plants they dreamed up in some 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.599 way resemble life forms that are found not on the 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.400 surface of Earth but underneath Earth's oceans. So the movie 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:10.600 features in some scenes a type of large ground flora, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.000 I think within the sort of in universe lore. It's 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.800 they call it like a zoo botanical or something like that. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.440 It's sort of like an animal plant combination. But whatever 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.600 it is, it basically seems plant formed. It's a piece 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.560 of large ground flora with spiral shaped foliage, and in 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:34.040 the universe of the movie it's called helicoradium spirally. And 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:36.240 in the movie we see that this plant has an 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.479 unusual reaction to activity in its environment. When it is 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:47.080 physically disturbed, these fanned out, corkscrew shaped leaves rapidly recoil 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.800 and fold up into almost nothingness. So you can be 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.120 standing in the middle of a little grove of these 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.400 things and suddenly they all fold up and you can 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.960 see everything around you. It's a touch me not reflex. 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.760 Very impressive effects in play here, particularly nice on the 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.159 big screen and in three D. You know, say what 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.040 you will about the Avatar films, but there's a lot 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.200 of fantastic biological world building going on in them, And yeah, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.200 this is a great example of one of the organisms 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.160 that Cameron unleashes us. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.520 Yeah, And so it turns out this was one of 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.600 the biological elements of the movie that was inspired by 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.080 organisms that actually exist in nature, not so much a plant, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:32.880 but by an animal, the real animal called Spirobranchus gigantius, 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.280 or the Christmas tree worm. And that's the animal that 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.880 I want to talk about for a minute here. So 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.120 first of all, your mind, if it works like mine, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.720 might be looking in the wrong direction here, because when 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.200 I hear Christmas tree worm, for some reason, to me, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.320 it sounds like the name of a pest animal that 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.600 is named after the crop that it is most notorious 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.640 for infesting and consuming. So like the tobacco hornworm or 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.239 the tato tuber worm. These are in reality both moth 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.760 species that in their larval stages feed on night shade 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.760 plants like the ones in their names, and other night 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.320 shade plants as well. But you know, humans kind of 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.520 have a sometimes a kind of economic agricultural mindset in 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.160 interfacing with wildlife, so they can sort of name animals 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.520 after the crop that that animal is causing them problems with. 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:28.200 Yeah, it's like Christmas tree worms have ravaged the harvest 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.640 again is going to be a tough winner exactly. 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.520 But the Christmas tree worm is not a caterpillar that 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.920 infests Christmas tree farms. Instead, it is a marine tubeworm 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.079 that lives on the surface of coral reefs. And so 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.480 what's the association. Well, these animals are named after Christmas 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.720 trees because they look like Christmas trees. And yet sometimes 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.400 these naming conventions are a bit of a stretch, But 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.000 for my part, I think it's close enough. I think 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.680 these worms really do kind of remind me of Christmas trees, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.160 though I will qualify that, and my qualification is that 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.400 it's not so much that they resemble the actual species 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.840 of evergreens, which are usually fir trees that we use 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.440 as Christmas decorations. The only way in which I'd say 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.199 they actually evoke the trees themselves is in general shape. 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.360 So like Christmas trees, the part of these worms you 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.000 can see is a cone which is widest at the 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.319 base and the narrows towards the top, and it does 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.000 sort of have branches, branches radiating from a central trunk 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:39.320 or spine. They're also sort of needly needly branches, which 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.680 you could compare to evergreen pine needle texture, but it's 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.680 not exactly a perfect match when you look at it. Instead, 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.640 I think the main way that they remind me and 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.640 remind other people of Christmas trees is that they mimic 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.800 a popular style of Christmas tree decoration, especially from years past, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.079 which is that you would have a string of lights 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.840 or a brightly colored garland wrapped around the tree in 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.000 a spiral pattern. I've got a couple of examples for 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:08.920 you to look at here, Rob. I don't really know 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.040 that much about historical patterns of Christmas tree decoration, but 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.520 this reads to me as a more old style way 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.840 of decorating a Christmas tree. I associate it with like 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.520 the nineteen thirties or forties. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.880 Yeah, yeah, And I guess maybe some of this survived. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.600 I don't know, I'm looking at this. I'm not sure 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:31.800 when this style of tree decoration dies out or then 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.120 again resurges again. For that matter, I'm not sure where 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.839 we are now. We don't put a tremendous amount of 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.400 thought into it. We just throw up the tree and 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.079 we put our favorite decorations up and call it a day. 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.320 Yeah, yeah, my family never had a spiral garland on 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.440 our tree, so it's not something I remember from personal experience. 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.640 I feel like I've seen it in older media, which 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.840 is maybe why I think of it as something that's older. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.200 We might have had a spiral garland, or maybe my 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.600 grandmother did. I don't remember, but it feels like something 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.920 I've seen in my lifetimee somewhere. Hard to get excited 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.160 about the garland, though, especially as a kid, because it's 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.920 the individual ornaments and the lights that have all of 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:10.760 the personality. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.480 I think, especially for people with brains like yours in mind. 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.280 I think you and I were both like the Illustrated 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.800 Dictionary kind of kids. We like things with lots of 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.200 little individual in trees, with the little illustration and explanation, 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.400 and that's kind of what the individual ornaments feel like 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.360 to me. I like individual ornaments with personality. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:30.600 Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good way of puting it. 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.400 But coming back to the Christmas tree worm, So if 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.600 you do a search for pictures of this worm, you 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:41.000 will find plenty of stunning underwater photos of coral reef 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:47.360 surfaces speckled with multicolored pairs of spiral Christmas trees. Each 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.600 pair branching in a fork. So what you'll see are 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.960 two little Christmas trees right beside one another, with the 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:59.240 same coloration. Now, each pair has a different coloration from 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.080 the other ones around, but within the pair, the two 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.520 little trees next to each other that are growing in 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.800 a V shape split at the base, those will be 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.559 the same color usually. And one important thing to emphasize 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.880 is that the Christmas trees that you're seeing are not 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.680 the whole of the organism. Each pair of Christmas trees 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.440 represents the two crowns, or feeding and breathing appendages of 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.680 a worm, the main cylindrical body of which is hidden 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.560 in a tube in the coral right beneath where the 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.560 trees emerge. And whether or not you think they look 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.480 like Christmas trees, these things are beautiful. I know they're 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.839 especially popular as a site for like scuba divers and snorkelers. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.280 Yeah, I've gotten to observe these in the wild before, 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.840 snorkeling in Breeze and in Rowatan. They're one of the 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.240 smaller pleasures of snorkeling in the shallows, and honestly, that's 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.480 what I'm all about when it comes to snorkeling. I 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.280 don't really I don't really want to see anything big, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.040 you know, unless it's like a big coral format. I mean, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.560 I see a bigger fish, it's neat. But I often 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.760 spend my time with looking around for those little details 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:11.040 things that are you know, curling about inside the reefs 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.640 and the rocks and and and you know, I think 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:16.599 that's one of the things that makes something like a 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:21.080 Christmas tree worm special. Now, in terms of whether they 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.280 look like Christmas trees, I don't know. Obviously, It's one 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.160 of those things where I knew what they were called, 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.400 but as they were pointed out to me, so I 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.640 couldn't help but bring Christmas tree into the scenario. But 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.640 the ones I remember looking at I tended to think 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.839 more of like bristle cleaner for straws and tubes, you know. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.280 But gorgeously decorated. 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.040 Yeah, Like, I don't remember them being the ones I saw, 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.439 mind you, as colorful as the ones I see in 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.360 some of these photos. But on the other hand, underwater 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.599 photography is very much a lighting game. I mean, I 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.520 guess all photography is a lighting game, and you know, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.760 what you actually see with your own eyes, and maybe 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.240 less than optimal lighting conditions the water. You know, they're 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.520 not going to necessarily match up with what you see, 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.880 you know, in somebody's showcase of underwater photography. But yeah, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.120 they still they do have a lot of character. You know, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.440 there's something sneaky and whimsical about them. A lot of 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.319 the things in the water don't want to be seen 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.080 and will do what they can passively or actively to 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.040 avoid a clumsy human and a mask and a snorkel 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.680 from seeing them. But Christmas tree worms tend to feel 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.640 just a little extra cheeky in the way they hide from. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.960 Us, Like they're not just hiding from you, they're almost 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.560 kind of playing peekaboo, maybe playing yeah hard to get. 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.200 Yeah, there is like a peekaboo feel to them, you. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.720 Know, yeah, yeah, you know. I was reading some guides 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.640 to marine life and coral reef life that we're talking 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.080 about people who try to get photos of these things, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.440 and apparently they's somewhat They're sensitive to multiple things, including 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.200 changes in light conditions. So maybe if a shadow falls 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.080 under them, they could retract, or if the flash of 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.240 a camera goes off, they could retract, and then slowly 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.120 over time after they retract, they'll so re emerge, and 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.960 so I think there might be some patience involved in 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.600 trying to get up close and see them or to 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.880 take a good photo of them, to kind of wait 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:11.880 for them to come back out after you have spooked 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.520 them the first time. But then another thing I saw 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.680 in one of the sources I was reading was that 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:23.200 how skittish they are might well depend on their surroundings. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.120 Like the ones that are in shallower, more turbulent waters, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.280 I think, tend to be a little less skittish than 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.040 the ones that are in deeper, more calm and stable waters, 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.560 which sort of makes sense. Yeah, but anyway, Okay, so 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:42.520 what's the biological rundown on the Christmas tree worm. It 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.160 is a relatively small polychet worm that lives the entirety 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.520 of its adult life with the majority of its body 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:55.840 hidden inside a calcareous tube that it makes initially on 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.960 the surface of a rock or more often a coral reef, 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.200 and then the tube can kind of become subsumed within 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:07.840 the coral as the coral grows, and then the worm 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.760 and its tube grows up along with the coral. So 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.200 it begins life in a short planktonic larval phase, floating 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.080 around after which it lands somewhere on the reef, secretes 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.080 a tube made of mucus, which it lives in for 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.440 a bit, and over time that mucous tube becomes cemented 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.040 with solid minerals, and then within that tube, the Christmas 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.200 tree worm metamorphoses and grows into its adult form, where 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.720 it will live the rest of its life, growing with 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.280 the structure of the reef, safe and secure, and covered 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.040 inside its tube by a nice lubricating blanket of mucus. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.320 I've seen different estimates on size range. According to a 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.440 post by the NOAA, on average, these worms are less 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:57.960 than four centimeters long, but according to marine biologist Eugene 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.040 Kaplan in his book A Field Guide Coral Reefs from 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.920 nineteen ninety nine, their body length can reach up to 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.040 twelve centimeters or about five inches either way. They are small, 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.199 but they're easy to spot because they're very colorful, and 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.359 in some cases because of rapid changes that you can 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:18.320 observe with them, most often them disappearing suddenly, so the 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:24.400 exposed parts the two Christmas trees are two tentacles or crowns, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:28.560 and I've also seen them called gill plumes arranged in 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.720 a spiral or whirl pattern, which themselves contain what's called 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.720 a bipinnate arrangement of hair like or needle like protrusions 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:43.440 called radioles. And then those little needle protrusions are themselves 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:48.880 perpendicularly covered in other smaller protrusions called pinules or ccilia. 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.959 So you can imagine a kind of fern shape. You know, 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.679 you have the main stalk going out, and then you 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.000 have branches going out from that stalk, and then out 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.440 from the branches you got the little leaves projecting at 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:04.360 a ninety gre angle. So these radioles covered in the cilia, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.480 the worm fans them out in this spiral pattern and 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.439 then beats them in the water to catch floating phytoplankton 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:16.080 and other bits of biological particle matter that will become 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:20.600 the worm's food. The little pins sort of they catch 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.200 hold of bits of organic stuff suspended in the water, 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.159 and then they sort of transport those particles in a 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.760 stream in little ridges along the surface of the worlds 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.520 down to the worm's mouth. Delicious. So imagine kind of 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.760 a spiral Christmas tree that gradually sucks in all of 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.400 its ornaments, sucks the ornaments down the branches and then 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.000 down the trunk and eats them. 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.080 I mean it sometimes works like that if you have 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.360 a cat and Christmas tree. 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.359 Now, these structures are not only for filter feeding, they're 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.199 also for breathing. They are the worm's gills, and so 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:59.120 the worm uses these radioles to extract dissolved oxygen from 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:03.640 the water. Now, the activity that makes the Christmas tree 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.480 worm notable as an inspiration for the plants in Avatar 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.000 is the touch me not reflex. When it senses danger 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:15.440 through multiple types of stimuli, it can rapidly retract its 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.239 two Christmas trees into the hole where it lives, and 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.120 on top of that, it can also shut the door 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.520 behind it. It has a flat body structure, sometimes capped 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.480 with some sort of horny surface called an operculum, which 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.680 it can slam shut over the opening of its tube. 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.080 And we've talked about this adaptation the operculum in other species, 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.239 such as snails. Snails sometimes have an operculum that they 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.879 can use to cover the opening of their shell. Serves 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.439 the same purpose, but of course, in the case of 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.880 a snail, the shell is mobile. Here we'd be talking 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.200 about a stationary tube on a substrate for a sedentary organism. 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.360 We also talked about it in our episodes on hermit crabs, 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.440 because in some cases the hermit crab will have one 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.600 one claw that is so made that it functions as 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:05.560 an operculum at the opening of the shell. 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:10.040 That's right. It's perfect little lid for their shell. 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.920 That's right. So the operculum is a biological adaptation for 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.440 slamming the door shut. Now, I wanted to shout out 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.560 an interesting sort of ecological fact that I became aware 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.720 of because I saw it in a PBS Nova segment, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.119 So thank you Nova. But the interesting thing is that 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.200 there is some evidence that the relationship between the Christmas 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.240 tree worm and the coral reef on which it lives 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.719 goes both ways. Now, of course you can see how 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.080 the worm benefits. The worm benefits from the coral skeletal structure, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.680 which of course provides it, you know, rigid protection against 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:50.840 predators and you know, the tube it can live in. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.960 But also as it grows, it lifts it up into 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:56.600 the water where it can have access to better waters 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:01.000 for filter feeding. But the coral itself may also benefit 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.680 from having Christmas tree worms all over it, because apparently 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.639 the Christmas tree worms can provide a kind of protection 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.720 for the coral against one of the coral's major predators, 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:18.760 and that predator is the crown of thorns starfish aka acinthaster, 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.199 plantcy or plunky p l A n c I. But 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.600 I'll just say crown of thorns starfish because boy, is 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:30.560 the epicness of that name appropriate. So imagine kind of 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.640 a cross between a giant sunflower and an iron maiden 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.240 turned inside out. These things are absolutely from the hell 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.600 razor universe, extremely wicked. They might do. They're large, they 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:45.760 might be roughly a foot and a half in diameter 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.399 on average, coated in spikes, and what they do is 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.920 they crawl over the surface of the coral reef just mowing. 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.080 There's just mowing the lawn, eating everything they can. According 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.879 to that NOVA segment, these giant starfish are in part 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.960 responsible for the major decline of living coral within the 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.240 Great Barrier Reef. There are other factors at work as well, 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.840 but when these things get going, a sort of explosion 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:14.000 in the population of these coral predators can clean out 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:19.080 a reef of living corals, and so the whole ventral surface, 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.560 the underside of the starfish, you can kind of think 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:28.159 of as a vast digestive organ complex containing tube feet 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:33.120 and this inverted stomach inside out stomach system, so it's 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.720 just the underside of it is foreeat. It is just 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.879 going to devour the coral underneath. And it turns out 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.960 there's some evidence that if it comes to a part 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.679 of a coral reef where there are Christmas tree worms, 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:51.600 the Christmas tree worms can protect the corals directly underneath 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.640 them because they get in the way of the starfish 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:58.320 feeding and in fact they irritate the starfish's feeding organs. 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:00.960 I've looked up a pa so I was trying to 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.679 find the paper that was the source of this observation, 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.960 and I found one published in the Marine Ecology Progress 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.200 Series from nineteen eighty six by Devantier at All called 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:17.360 does spiro Bronchus gigantius protect host porities from predation by 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:22.960 acanthaster planky predator pressure as a mechanism of coevolution? And 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:24.439 I was looking for the part of the paper that 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.480