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Riftia
| Giant tube worms | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Annelida |
| Clade: | Pleistoannelida |
| Clade: | Sedentaria |
| Order: | Sabellida |
| Family: | Siboglinidae |
| Genus: | Riftia M. L. Jones, 1981 |
| Species: | R. pachyptila
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| Binomial name | |
| Riftia pachyptila M. L. Jones, 1981
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Riftia pachyptila, commonly known as the giant tube worm and less commonly known as the giant beardworm, is a marine invertebrate in the phylum Annelida[1] (formerly grouped in phylum Pogonophora and Vestimentifera) related to tube worms commonly found in the intertidal and pelagic zones. R. pachyptila lives on the floor of the Pacific Ocean near hydrothermal vents. The vents provide a natural ambient temperature in their environment ranging from 2 to 30 °C,[2] and this organism can tolerate extremely high hydrogen sulfide levels. These worms can reach a length of 3 m (9 ft 10 in),[3] and their tubular bodies have a diameter of 4 cm (1.6 in).
Its common name "giant tube worm" is, however, also applied to the largest living species of shipworm, Kuphus polythalamius, which despite the name "worm", is a bivalve mollusc rather than an annelid.
- ^ Ruppert E, Fox R, Barnes R (2007). Invertebrate Zoology: A functional Evolutionary Approach (7th ed.). Belmont: Thomson Learning. ISBN 978-0-03-025982-1.
- ^ Bright M, Lallier FH (2010). "The biology of vestimentiferan tubeworms". Oceanography and Marine Biology (PDF). Oceanography and Marine Biology - an Annual Review. Vol. 48. Taylor & Francis. pp. 213–266. doi:10.1201/ebk1439821169-c4 (inactive 2024-11-12). ISBN 978-1-4398-2116-9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - ^ McClain, Craig R.; Balk, Meghan A.; Benfield, Mark C.; Branch, Trevor A.; Chen, Catherine; Cosgrove, James; Dove, Alistair D.M.; Gaskins, Lindsay C.; Helm, Rebecca R. (2015-01-13). "Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna". PeerJ. 3: e715. doi:10.7717/peerj.715. PMC 4304853. PMID 25649000.
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