The Pogonophora, or beard worms, are a small group of deep sea tube worms often found growing around warm springs. The rear of the body is segmented, and together with the Vestimentifera they have recently been regarded as a family of annelids, called the Siboglinidae, though they were earlier treated as a phylum. They appear to feed primarily on symbiotic bacteria living in their mouthless bodies. Fossils are rare. The first species was dredged from the waters of what is now Indonesia in 1900.
This was the first discovery of the Pogonophora, an animal phylum restricted to the deep sea and remarkably common in certain habitats there.
These worms are sometimes placed in their own phylum, the Vestimentifera, but they are similar to pogonophorans in most respects, and the current tendency is to group these rift-dwelling worms together with the rest of the Pogonophora into one phylum.
The name Pogonophora is Greek for "beard-bearers," and comes from the fact that many species have from one to many tentacles at the anterior end.
The Pogonophora, or beard worms, are a small group of deep sea tube worms[?] often found growing around warm springs.
The rear of the body is segmented, and together with the Vestimentifera they have recently been regarded as a family of annelids, called the Siboglinidae[?], though they were earlier treated as a phylum.
The first species was dredged from the waters of what is now Indonesia in 1900.
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