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FROZEN HEAT

44

Figure 2.5:

Cold-seep organisms. Examples from the methane seep ecosystem. A, C, E and F are chemosymbiotic animals whose energy source

is hydrogen sulfide produced by methane-degrading microorganisms in the sediment. A: vestimentiferan tubeworm –

Lamellibrachia barhami

, B:

lithodid crab embracing tube cores placed in a field of vesicomyid clams and bacterial mat C: solemyid clam –

Acharax

sp. D: Snail –

Neptunea

amianta

and their egg towers attached to rock. E: Yeti crabs –

Kiwa puravida

, the ‘fur’ on their claws is filamentous symbiotic bacteria which they

nourish by waving in sulphide-rich fluids, and then consume F: Thyasiridae, Quepos Seep (400 m water depth), Costa Rica margin G: Alvinocarid

shrimp, Mound 12, Costa Rica margin (1 000 mwater depth) (Photos courtesy of Greg Rouse and Lisa Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography).

A

E

B

C

F

D

G