Bobbit worms, undersea predators | Hacker News Reader

Bobbit worms, undersea predators

wired.com

33 pointsaustinz12 comments

Interesting article here about what happened when one of them found their way into an aquarium. The photo makes Wired's pic look like a model shot:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1165930/Barry...

In the Wired video, the worm looks cool, albeit not something you'd want to run into.

The Daily Mail pics on the other hand are horrifying.

The video of it pulling the fish under, and the ground movement as it does something to the fish under the soil is disturbing. Nightmare fuel.

That Bobbit worm should definitely work for Hollywood. He knew how to do it all cinematically for the camera.

I haven't watched the video, and after reading your comment I probably never will.

/shiver

Sitting in bed reading this before I go to sleep, you could not pay me to watch that video.

NOPE.

Yeah, but what about the Octopus? It gets pulled in, then it casually walks out leaving behind silence. So did he go all medieval on the worm and take it out? Pay it off? Squirt ink in his mouth to make him go ewwwww? I hate cliff hanger endings.

I was wondering that too, and hoping the article would explain.

My assumption is that the Octopus' body yields enough to sustain quite a bit less damage, and the bobbit worm releases it's prey while under ground to get a better grip.

Alternatively, maybe the Octopus released ink while under the soil and it confused/irritated the worm.

In any case, that Octopus gets my respect.

If it had released a significant amount of ink, I would have expected to see it come back up in the water with the octopus. Another possibility is that the octopus was venomous and bit the worm.

As you said: in any case, respect.

I'm guessing the octopus released ink at the very least. Moreover, octopi are renowned for being able to squeeze through very small holes and doing so quickly, so maybe it found a quick route out of the worm's mouth at a fortuitous moment.

It body snatched the octopus and is now wearing it like a skin in search of more prey.

Feeding time: http://youtu.be/tkUSx6aQGXU

Looks like a cool pet.

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