The 27 Best Deep-Sea Species: #26 Pig Butt Worm

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#26
Pig Butt Worm, Chaetopterus pugaporcinus

This species bring a whole new meaning to butt face. It’s Latin name even means butt face.  I jest… it actually means resembling a pig’s rump. Chaetopterus is a polychaete and like other worms it has segments.  Some of the segments are just a little bit inflated.  But it’s not just it’s looks that puts this little fellow on our list.  It feeds by deploying a mucus cloud that traps material in the water.  Shaped like a butt and uses a mucus cloud to feed…enough said.

 


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14 Replies to “The 27 Best Deep-Sea Species: #26 Pig Butt Worm”

  1. Ah, such diversity in naming conventions. Makes me wistful for my days doing real science . . . . . but why a pig butt? Could DSN have this creature as the first installment of a “Really creative sea creature renaming contest?”

  2. LOL! Best – or worst – critter name ever. Or maybe both. :-D

  3. This has to be the coolest creature on the face of the earth! The Pig Butt Worm! Awesome! Love it! And here I thought the Sea Cucumber was funky lookin. *lmao*

  4. Thank you. That is the best laugh I have had for a while. You have got to love nature.

  5. An inelegant name…perhaps popular culture is “dumbing down” a generation of biologists.

  6. Ha! Taxonomists have giving “inelegant” names to organisms since classification was founded. Linneaus himself would name the most ugly animals after people he disliked. I recommend taking a perusal through the Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature. Dumbing down and having sense of humor are entirely different magisteria here.

  7. woowwwww. i wonder waht kind of names they will have for other sae creatures in the future. pig butt worm?? they really went deep this time.. lol

  8. Still makes me giggle. “Inelegant name?” This thing does not even need a name to make me giggle.

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