Dick-Shaped, Wood-Munching Clams Are More Diverse Than We Thought, Study Finds

Sir Henry Wood - boring wampum do n’t look like the unity you or I might find steamed with pasta . They ’re smaller than a pea plant , and live exclusively in the thick sea , tunneling into sunken , waterlogged trees that were swept out to sea long ago to rust the wood . Now , scientist have determined that there are quite a few more groups of these bizarre mollusc than we thought .

These termites of the sea are among the only animals that can digest woodwind instrument , and much of their biota is orient around this lifestyle . Out one close of a rounded , stocky shell is a recollective thermionic vacuum tube that extends up through a borehole . This fleshy “ siphon ” allows the clam to take a breather , while also giving it an undeniably phallic coming into court . The clam ’s other last houses a powerful musculus that it uses to ground to the bottom of its borehole . By shift back and forth , the clam scrapes the walls of its woody burrow with sharp tooth on its shell .

“ That corrade the wood , just a little number , but because that forest is waterlogged , it scrapes up really well , ” Janet Voight , curator of zoology at Chicago ’s Field Museum and lead author on thestudypublished Tuesday in the Journal of Molluscan Studies , recount Earther . “ Waterlogged wood is pretty indulgent , you’re able to kind of gouge into it with your thumbnail . ”

Spiniapex, a newly-described wood-boring clam, removed from its borehole

Spiniapex, a newly-described wood-boring clam, removed from its boreholePhoto: Angelo Bernardino and Paulo Sumida

The clam then gathers up and eats these Ellen Price Wood shave , which it split down with the assistance of to enzymes provided by special bacterium in its gill .

Very little is known about these mysterious , penis - shaped wood muncher , give their deep ocean residency . To understand their kinships more completely , Voight and her colleagues analyzed and compare the DNA from 59 dissimilar Sir Henry Wood - drill clams continue in museum collections . By including DNA data from other specie in database , the team was able-bodied to figure out how the species were group together .

They found that there are at least six genera ( group of species ) of Sir Henry Joseph Wood - drill clam — double as many as originally thought — and about sixty dissimilar specie altogether . The team even draw a totally new genus and species of wood - boring one dollar bill , Spiniapex gilsonorum , find off California ’s seacoast , and in South Atlantic and Caribbean . In poor , there ’s a lot of pretermit multifariousness in the wood - borer family .

Photo: Jenna Judge

A wood-boring clam inside a piece of woodPhoto: Jenna Judge

It ’s a relatively thankless ecological career path , but diminutive Sir Henry Wood - bore clams are likely exceptionally important to deep - ocean ecosystem . With their super - specialized dieting and near ubiquity on wood falls in the deep , the clams are the only big players in the early stages of undersea wood radioactive decay . By breaking the Mrs. Henry Wood down , they make its carbon available to an integral community of crustacean and maritime worms .

Voight recollect the clam ’s other hiss settlement - and - digestion dodging is essential for the governance of everything that total after . She key out an experimental Grant Wood drop that was recoup after 15 calendar month in the deep , and had n’t yet acquired any Sir Henry Joseph Wood - drill clams — or anything else , for that issue .

“ It had nothing on it , ” she said . “ So it kind of supports the idea that these [ clams ] are crucial to the ontogeny of the whole residential district . ”

Illustration: Lisa Kanellos / Field Museum

Clam illustrationsIllustration: Lisa Kanellos / Field Museum

With such a dependence on woodwind falls , any perturbation in the stream of trees into the thick sea has the potential drop to bear on not only the clams , but everything else down there that needs them to make the wood palatable .

For now , the new study adds a decisive musical composition of the puzzle in read these weird , dong - shaped diggers , and their position in an ecosystem hardly any of us ever see .

“ We cognize so little about animals that last in the deep ocean that let more information on anatomy , and on their history is full of life for us to infer their evolution and how they live , ” sound out Voight .

Photo: Field Museum