- Science
- Not Exactly Rocket Science
Marine worms release glowing “bombs” to fool predators
During chase scenes, movie protagonists often make their getaway by releasing a decoy to cover their escape or distract their pursuer. But this tactic isn’t reserved for action heroes. Some deep-sea animals also evade their predators by releasing decoys – glowing ones.
The worms were collected from the Pacific Ocean by remote-controlled submarines. Unfortunately, the small size of the bombs and the low resolution of the sub’s cameras meant that Osborn was never able to film the worms actually releasing their glowing payload in their natural environment (although she did capture some great videos; see bottom of post).
Nonetheless, the specimens she recovered would indeed launch one or two bombs, when they were prodded on any part of their body. If she