Dive and Discover : Expedition 9 : Galapagos Rift : Mail Buoy

Return to the Galápagos Rift
Expedition 9:
May 20-June 3, 2005

Mail Buoy
May 26, 2005

My name is Anne Marie. I am 15 and I attend Clover Hill High School in Midlothian, Virginia. My 9th grade earth science class is following this expedition. Today we were looking at the slide show of pictures. We were wondering why the animals, such as the tubeworms, at the bottom of the rift have such great colors even thought they are so deep under the water. I was thinking that they would have no pigment being in that dark of the water. Also I was wondering that maybe they have their colors due to their skin reacting with elements down there. Do ya’ll know what causes them to have such beautiful coloring?

Thanks so much,
Anne Marie

Dear Anne Marie,

Thank you for your very good questions. The brilliant and different colors are due to different reasons. Tubeworms are red because their thin-skinned bodies are filled with blood containing red hemoglobin. Shrimp can be pink or red due to the color of the food they eat in the water column. We think crabs are white because they have lost their need to use color to communicate or hide from predators. The outside of animals is often stained with the elements contained in the fluids. For example, as a vent field ages, iron in the vent fluids often precipitates on the tubeworm tubes and mussel shells such that they appear rust colored. What makes the vent fish on the Galapagos Rift purple is not well understood.

Thank you for your questions and interest. Hope you are enjoying Dive and Discover.

Best wishes,
Tim Shank
biologist

Can tubeworms come out of their tubes?
-anonymous

Riftia tubeworms might be able to come out of their tubes because they are not anchored to the bottom or sides, however, they would not survive. They rely on the tube as a means of support, an external scaffolding that allows them to keep their plumes in both vent fluids containing sulfide and ambient deep-sea water containing oxygen. Riftia have been observed outside their tube only when crabs have pulled them out, or their tubes have been damaged.

Tim Shank
biologist

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