Yeah, when the tide comes in is when things tend to get messy...like this post by New York Post who reported the sudden reappearance of the 300-million-year-old species called "pulsing penis fish" on Drakes Beach in California that is currently awash with these funny looking d*ck fish. Rarely has the general population been so interested in news about bays, yet here we are. Twitter is going crazy.
Parr is a biologist from the Western Section of the Wildlife Society and explained that these worms typically burrow into mud or sand underwater, but a storm likely pushed them ashore, turning it into a nude beach. Parr explains the function of the worm: "When the tide is in, the worm slides up to the chimney of its burrow and exudes a sticky mucous net from a ring of glands. Sometimes you can see these mucous nets, looking like decaying jellyfish, draped around the burrow entrance. The worm continues to secrete as it slips lower into the burrow, generating a slime-net that stretches from the chimney to the worm's mouth. Using contractions (peristalsis) to pump water through its burrow, the worm sucks plankton, bacteria, and other bits into this net. When, like any vacuum, the net gets clogged, the worm slurps it all back into its mouth, taking in the particles it wants to eat and discarding the rest into the tunnel"
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