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(Image credit: Wang H, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))
FAST FACTS
Call: Paralvinella hessleri
Where it lives: Pacific Ocean
What it consumes: Germs and natural particles around hydrothermal vents
Deep-sea animals are distinctively adjusted to residing in severe environments, and the worm Paralvinella hessleri is no exception. It endures high levels of hazardous chemicals like arsenic by producing its own toxin.Discovered just at the most popular hydrothermal vents in the western Pacific, consisting of the Okinawa Trough and Mariana Back-Arc Basin, these worms mature to about 0.8 inches (22 millimeters) in length and reside in protective tubes connected to vent chimneys. Extremely, P. hessleri is the just recognized animal able to colonize and prosper in the acidic, metal-rich zones of these vents, where temperature levels can reach around 608 degrees Fahrenheit (320 degrees Celsius)These worms have an uncommon survival technique that lets them hold up against the high levels of harmful arsenic and sulfide discovered at hydrothermal vents. In human beings, arsenic direct exposure is connected to major illness, consisting of cancer and neurological conditions. P. hesslerinevertheless, turns this risk into a defense: it shops arsenic in its skin cells, where the toxic substance responds with sulfide from vent fluids to form orpiment– a less hazardous, though still dangerous, mineral.
This brilliant yellow-orange compound, when referred to as “King’s Yellow,” was traditionally utilized by artists as a pigment up until its toxicity ended up being clear. P. hessleriwhich has a yellow-orange tint due to the orpiment crystals, can build up a lot arsenic that it comprises almost 1% of the worm’s body weight.
In a 2025 paper released in the journal PLOS Biologythe scientists who found the worms’ survival method explained the procedure as “fighting poison with poison.”
Talking about the discovery, research study co-author Hao Wanga scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oceanology, stated he was “stunned” when he initially saw the worms with a from another location run lorry.
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“The bright yellow Paralvinella hessleri worms were unlike anything I had ever seen, standing out vividly against the white biofilm and dark hydrothermal vent landscape,” he stated in a declaration. “It was hard to believe that any animal could survive, let alone thrive, in such an extreme and toxic environment.”
Lydia Smith is a health and science reporter who works for U.K. and U.S. publications. She is studying for an MSc in psychology at the University of Glasgow and has an MA in English literature from King’s College London.
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