flatworm
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These tube worms live at great depth around hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific. They were discovered in 1979, when marine geologists were exploring areas of sea bed not far from the Atacama Trench, about 160 km/100 mi from the coasts of Peru and Chile. The tube worms were given the scientific name Riftia pachyptila: Riftia after the Trench, and pachyptila meaning thickly frond-covered.
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A marine turbellarian flatworm seems to propel itself along simply by rippling the ribbonlike edges of its flat body. In fact, the body surface of the flatworm is covered in tiny mucus-covered hairlike projections, and the ripples create waves of mucus, through which the creature pulls itself smoothly forward, using the hairlike projections.
Invertebrate of the phylum Platyhelminthes. Some are free-living, but many are parasitic (for example, tapeworms and flukes). The body is simple and bilaterally symmetrical, with one opening to the intestine. Many are hermaphroditic (with both male and female sex organs) and practise self-fertilization.
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