AY Honors/Marine Invertebrates/Answer Key

Fossil gastropod from the Pliocene of Cyprus. A tube-dwelling serpulid worm is attached.

The name tube worm may refer to any of a number of unrelated tube-dwelling worm-like invertebrates.

These include chiefly various polychaetes, specifically the family Siboglinidae (beard worms), Serpulidae, and related families of the order Canalipalpata. Other groups also called tube worms include members of the phylum Phoronida (horseshoe worms).

It may also refer to the bright red worms found living at the bottom of the ocean near active sulfur vents. These worms live in huge colonies clumped together around the hydrothermal vents.