Unbeknownst to most landlubbers, polychaetes rule the seas. There are at least 10,000 species of these swimming bristly worms, some of which pop with brilliant colors or light up with a bioluminescent ...

Light-sensitive stem cells let bristleworms grow their eyes for life, shedding new light on how vision evolved.

Although human jaws can take a beating—ask Adonis Creed—they have nothing on those belonging to ocean-dwelling bristle worms. The worms have “remarkably stable” jaws according to scientists, which ...

A research team has presented its findings on the functioning of an atypical cryptochrome protein (Cry). These proteins are found in a variety of organisms, and they are often involved in ...

Bristle worms are found almost everywhere in seawater, they have populated the oceans for hundreds of millions of years. Nevertheless, some of their special features have only now been deciphered: ...

How could anyone go two years without noticing something this huge? Well, humans have been around for 200,000. Bristle worms and their polychaete brothers have survived five mass extinctions. Many ...

The larvae of a bristle worm, saltwater worms with elaborate, hair-like structures. Photograph By C: Luis Zelaya-Lainez, Vienna University of Technology Most people will never see a bristle worm in ...

Modern annelids, such as earthworms and leeches, actually originated from a 2-centimeter worm with hundreds of hairlike bristles. They lived underwater more than 500 million years ago. This ...

Researchers have described an exceptionally well-preserved new fossil species of bristle worm called Kootenayscolex barbarensis. Discovered from the 508-million-year-old Marble Canyon fossil site in ...

Last Sunday's outdoors column included John Alexander's query about "hundreds of small, red swimming worm-like creatures" at night at Bodega Bay. What were they? That mystery attracted responses from ...

The newest ancient creature to give us a big glimpse into evolution is a tiny 508-million-year old worm that has crazy-looking tentacles and no eyes. Researchers from The Royal Ontario Museum and the ...

Although human jaws can take a beating—ask Adonis Creed—they have nothing on those belonging to ocean-dwelling bristle worms. The worms have “remarkably stable” jaws according to scientists, which ...