Segmented Worms

Segmented worms are among the oldest animals on the Great Barrier Reef. They have changed little during the past 500 million years.

Feeding

Segmented worms are carnivores: They feed by using their pincer-like jaws to capture other organisms.

Segmented worms and humans

Some segmented worms are covered with bristles that discourage predators by acting like quills on Australia's famous spiny anteater, the echidna. The bristles are very sharp, like fine needles, and can easily pierce human skin. When touched, they tend to break off, becoming embedded and causing painful irritation. Sticking plaster can be used to remove the bristles from the skin.

Reproduction

Most worms have separate sexes, however, as with earth worms, some are hermaphrodites, having both male and female sex organs. Some species undergo mass spawning, sometimes at the same time as coral spawning. Some worms develop long swimming lobes that help them swim up towards the surface during spawning. As the adult nears the surface, their bodies rupture, freeing eggs and sperm. The adults then die.

Worm caviar?

In Samoa, people are able to determine the exact day of the palolo worm spawning and to catch the adult worms as they swim towards the surface to spawn. The worms are regarded as a delicacy that apparently tastes like caviar, which is made from the eggs of a large fish called the Sturgeon, found in cold waters of the Northern Atlantic and adjacent seas.