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Very nice video. As one of the authors of the images and papers on Ramisyllis is fantastic to see them pop up in a channel I already followed. Also, the Bizarre Beasts team contacted us during the production of the video and they were delightful! Excellent work!
@@Debicat777 Hi! This far we have been unable to have an exact number of stolons, but they are definitively in the hundreds per animal simultaneously. Perhaps even >1000 in big animals living in big sponges. As for the sex, the animals are either male or female at a given time, but it is common for worms like these to change their sex once or several times during their lifetimes, although we still don't know if Ramisyllis is able to change sexes.
Wow, great to see the experts themselves show up. I also have a question, if you have time: Hank said we don't know how or what they eat, and ok we don't *know*, but could you expound a bit on the theories? This video let me with so many questions. The mouth end stays face down in the sponge, right? You'd think the parts sticking out would be the better position to find almost any kind of food. Sponges are themselves filter feeders so I can't imagine much food would make it to the worm in the center. We're fairy sure it's not just eating the sponge, right? That would be pretty obvious if it was. Can we tell anything from the structure of the mouth? They mentioned a hypothesis of absorbing through its skin; was that based on anything about the skin or simply because using the mouth seemed unlikely? Making that many stolen must take a lot of energy, which has to come from somewhere. Because of the variety of mature sizes found, I take it that they aren't like some moths that at sexual maturity give up on food entirely to focus on mating for the rest of their lives... Hopefully you're the passionate kind of scientist that'll gush at me about your research. I'm here for all the rambling you wish to do!
Hello@@Jigkuro! Nice to see the animals are so interesting to you. At this point, I'd say we are certain about the worms not eating the sponge (we have not seen any evidence of tissue damage within the sponges + there doesn't seem to be any sponge tissue within the digestive tract of the animals + genomic sequencing of the worm did not show any sponge genome contamination, something that would be expected if there were any sponge tissue withing the guts of the worm). That said, the worms do feed somehow, we just don't know the intake mechanism or whether they feed on particulate organic matter or dissolved organic matter. This is quite intriguing at the moment because, although in other annelid worms with through-the-skin feeding the gut is usually reduced of completely absent, the mouth and digestive tract of Ramisyllis are anatomically normal. Yet, the intestine seems mostly empty of particulate material and it is clear that the small mouth opening of the single head cannot be the only food intake point. This has not been thoroughly studied yet, but our suspicion is that the mouth pumping water in (as it does in related worms) would face hydraulic problems due to the relatively immense volume of water stored in the gut and combined section area of each gut branch. This is way our current hypothesis are through-the-skin absorption of dissolved organic matter (which would leave the problem of the seemingly functional digestive tract), or the involvement of the many posterior ends in nutrient absorption (which would be in line with the strong ciliation we have observed in the rectal area). Last, about the possibility of the animals not eating in their adult life as some insects do, this is not the case for worms like these. Firstly, because they grow continuously during their lives (for which they need food and energy), and secondly because they are most likely able to reproduce more than once in their lifetime (which we suspect to be quite long). I hope I've managed to condense a good enough and comprehensible explanation of this. The problem of how they feed is one we have thought a lot about, but, unfortunately, experimentation with these animals has proven to be very tricky and it may be while until we have clear answers.
I honestly don't know what's cooler, having multiple butts or having a sentient detachable butt. Having multiple sentient detachable butts sounds like a nightmare though
This is, without question, the strangest, most fascinating, and most perplexing animal I have ever heard of. A Bizzare Beast indeed! Thank you so much for sharing this with the world
@@sizanogreen9900 It's just that the real ones end up either just looking somewhat strange (like this thing, it's just a profoundly strange worm) or absolutely disgusting. Notable exceptions include the bobbit worm, which is 100% an alien and i cannot be convinced otherwise because just look at the thing.
As someone with crohn's disease, a colostomy, and a history of internal abscesses...down there...I am so happy to have found my spirit animal. 🤣 Subscribed to the pin club specifically for this one!
I love how the multi-butt is the least weird part about this animal. As usual, Sci-show and Bizarre Beasts don't click-bait, the videos are always way weirder than the title.
Sponge: "Good morning neighbour. Hey who is this little cutie? Never seen him before" Ramisyllis: "My butt's stolon." Sponge: "I did not ask about your butts, but that's unfortunate. Who is this little one again?" Ramisyllis: "My butt's stolon!" Sponge: "OK OK, just call the police. Plus you have some many butts, it's not a big deal" Sponge talk to the little one: "OK who are you ?" Stolon: "Ramisyllis' butt's stolon" Sponge: "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I already knew that!!! I'm not the one who stole, just calm down"
This is quite possibly the best Bizarre Beasts episode of all time, as well as the MOST on-brand piece of Complexly media I've seen recently, oh my god. XDDD ...But also, speaking as a biologist and just sort of generally a fan of nature, WHAT THE HECK?? This has got to be a contender for the weirdest worm in existence! Properly living up to the title of Bizarre Beast; I would never have expected such a worm could exist!
Don’t some animals breathe through their butts? Since sponges take in oxygen throughout their entire structure the oxygen level inside the sponge might be low, thus pressuring the worms to add extra branches to get more oxygen. Sort of like an inside out lung.
In practice it is the opposite of the Hydra of Lerna (instead of having 100 heads and only one "butt". The worm has only one head and 100 Butts) I had guessed right with the "Guess the animal" but never a multi-butted worm. Then the pin of this worm is cute looks like a coat of arms of an alien
*BRANCHWORM* *Type:* Water This polychaete's body consists of a single head branching into hundreds of endings that protrude from the sponge inside which it lives. How it obtains nutrients is a mystery.
What a weird and wonderful creature. Have you all considered the narwhal as a future bizarre beast? I think it is a good candidate because so many people think it is mythical and I'm sure you could find interesting research about the horn.
I can't help but think of the South Park episode about genetic engineering where all the animals created had multiple butts, and now I know that nature really created something like that. I want to know why.
Nice episode, i loved being bombarded with all of these weird open ended... questions about this creature, with no answers. I hope i'll see an update on this creature somewhere sometime soon.
The joy I feel in hearing about these butt worms. So many butts but unknown what they even eat and butts are detachable. What oddities and bizarre creatures! I adore them! And can’t wait to get the pin seems o joined at a great time.
Maybe the worms eat parasites or macro bacteria? Fungi? Keep the sponge clean or something. And maybe the butts are also mouths? Would make the gut a little weird but I'm sure there've been weirder digestive systems in the animal kingdom. Would also make having lots of butts less of a drain on resources.
This is about as bizarre a beast as I've ever heard of; thank you for bringing news of it to the (TH-cam) world! I'd love to know how long this critter has been around - for as long as there have been sponges?? (maybe mitochondria might provide a clue, since finding any fossils seems incredibly unlikely), to know how many epochal upheavals and extinctions it has survived.
"Butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, this is a worm shaped like a stalk, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off. And this is what they say, no one knows why they grow this way, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off." (Parody of "Chicken Talk" by Richie Kavanagh.) In all seriousness I think this worm either feeds through diffusion like some other worms do, or perhaps it feeds on its host sponge's table scraps and dead cells like a wrasse.
Listening to Hank talk about this creature and it's butt issues racks me up and makes me grin at how much fun he's clearly having talking about butts. Clearly, Hank is a butt guy. 😂🥰
The hypothesis where the worm absorbs its nutrients directly seems to be the only possibility. Everything about the critter seems to be about maximising its surface area.
At first I thought the thumbnail was, like, an x-rayed map of the contiguous united states, and this monstrous continent-spanning worm had exactly one booty in each state
boy i've heard the myth that if you cut a worm in half it simply becomes two worms before, i did not expect to learn the much more distressing truth that a worm's butt can sometimes produce a sex gremlin that will detach just to come and die
So, I thought this worm was cool and I love the way Hank explains things 😂 But I have to wonder: If the worm can make new stolons from scratch, and the stolon has its own brain and nervous system, shouldn’t scientists be studying the crap out of that for applications to neuroscience? Like growing a whole new brain has to come with something that could help with Alzheimer’s or TBI or strokes, right?
I wonder how such a unique and bizarre beast that was discovered a decade ago was never studied extensively enough for us to even know how it eats. I guess scientists had more important things to do than study a butt branch.
Would you like your very own Ramisyllis multicaudata pin designed by Mary Cirino? You can get yours now right here! store.dftba.com/collections/bizarrebeasts/products/bizarre-beasts-pin-subscription-1
Some male octopuses have an arm specialized for reproduction. It is detached and swims to the female to deposit the sperm. So even some very complex organisms have detachable genitalia. However, they are limited to one reproductive arm per male octopus.
what if the digestive system is vestigial, and it's a remnant as it further evolves more and more surface area for filter feeding? Basically evolving to act like a sponge itself. Hence all the butts: they're a unique way to give it more surface area.
This reminds me of the aphids episode, or a half-remembered fact about teeny tiny generations of trees- that the body plan and life alternates between generations, so half of them are worms that live in sponges and half of them are worms that go out and sexually reproduce.
Are you looking for a way to get more Bizarre Beasts in your life? We have Ramisyllis multicaudata pins, plus prints, stickers, socks, and an excellent kākāpō figurine! complexly.store/collections/bizarre-beasts
The only thing worse than having a bunch of butts is finding out some have been stolon.
Take my like and begone!
You could say it’s… a stolen colon? I’ll see myself out
Well they do swim away on their own, so it's possible.
Not when my butt gets stolon!
I am positive that at some point in the scripting process, Hank declared, either to himself or aloud, "I am going to get to say 'butt' SO many times".
To quote Zefrank. "Give me a kernel of corn and let's play butthole pachinko"
Very nice video. As one of the authors of the images and papers on Ramisyllis is fantastic to see them pop up in a channel I already followed. Also, the Bizarre Beasts team contacted us during the production of the video and they were delightful! Excellent work!
+++
I’m so fascinated with this worm!! Do you know how many stolons it can produce and if the stolons have male and female gametes?
@@Debicat777 Hi! This far we have been unable to have an exact number of stolons, but they are definitively in the hundreds per animal simultaneously. Perhaps even >1000 in big animals living in big sponges. As for the sex, the animals are either male or female at a given time, but it is common for worms like these to change their sex once or several times during their lifetimes, although we still don't know if Ramisyllis is able to change sexes.
Wow, great to see the experts themselves show up. I also have a question, if you have time:
Hank said we don't know how or what they eat, and ok we don't *know*, but could you expound a bit on the theories? This video let me with so many questions.
The mouth end stays face down in the sponge, right? You'd think the parts sticking out would be the better position to find almost any kind of food. Sponges are themselves filter feeders so I can't imagine much food would make it to the worm in the center. We're fairy sure it's not just eating the sponge, right? That would be pretty obvious if it was. Can we tell anything from the structure of the mouth? They mentioned a hypothesis of absorbing through its skin; was that based on anything about the skin or simply because using the mouth seemed unlikely?
Making that many stolen must take a lot of energy, which has to come from somewhere. Because of the variety of mature sizes found, I take it that they aren't like some moths that at sexual maturity give up on food entirely to focus on mating for the rest of their lives...
Hopefully you're the passionate kind of scientist that'll gush at me about your research. I'm here for all the rambling you wish to do!
Hello@@Jigkuro! Nice to see the animals are so interesting to you.
At this point, I'd say we are certain about the worms not eating the sponge (we have not seen any evidence of tissue damage within the sponges + there doesn't seem to be any sponge tissue within the digestive tract of the animals + genomic sequencing of the worm did not show any sponge genome contamination, something that would be expected if there were any sponge tissue withing the guts of the worm). That said, the worms do feed somehow, we just don't know the intake mechanism or whether they feed on particulate organic matter or dissolved organic matter. This is quite intriguing at the moment because, although in other annelid worms with through-the-skin feeding the gut is usually reduced of completely absent, the mouth and digestive tract of Ramisyllis are anatomically normal. Yet, the intestine seems mostly empty of particulate material and it is clear that the small mouth opening of the single head cannot be the only food intake point. This has not been thoroughly studied yet, but our suspicion is that the mouth pumping water in (as it does in related worms) would face hydraulic problems due to the relatively immense volume of water stored in the gut and combined section area of each gut branch. This is way our current hypothesis are through-the-skin absorption of dissolved organic matter (which would leave the problem of the seemingly functional digestive tract), or the involvement of the many posterior ends in nutrient absorption (which would be in line with the strong ciliation we have observed in the rectal area).
Last, about the possibility of the animals not eating in their adult life as some insects do, this is not the case for worms like these. Firstly, because they grow continuously during their lives (for which they need food and energy), and secondly because they are most likely able to reproduce more than once in their lifetime (which we suspect to be quite long).
I hope I've managed to condense a good enough and comprehensible explanation of this. The problem of how they feed is one we have thought a lot about, but, unfortunately, experimentation with these animals has proven to be very tricky and it may be while until we have clear answers.
I honestly don't know what's cooler, having multiple butts or having a sentient detachable butt. Having multiple sentient detachable butts sounds like a nightmare though
I think I saw that Doom Patrol episode!
imagine having sentient detachable butts whose sole purpose is to be horny on your behalf
This is, without question, the strangest, most fascinating, and most perplexing animal I have ever heard of. A Bizzare Beast indeed! Thank you so much for sharing this with the world
Seriously tho, hardly any creatures we came up with to be fantastical and alien can hold a candle to what is really out there on our own planet.
@@sizanogreen9900 It's just that the real ones end up either just looking somewhat strange (like this thing, it's just a profoundly strange worm) or absolutely disgusting.
Notable exceptions include the bobbit worm, which is 100% an alien and i cannot be convinced otherwise because just look at the thing.
siphonophores almost seem reasonably normal compared to this.
The joy in his voice when he said " if somebody asks [about your pin], you can tell them" is incredible
As a biologist who focuses on invertebrates, I've learned about lots of weird creatures. THIS IS THE WEIRDEST ONE I'VE EVER HEARD OF!!!
I cannot adequately express the joy I felt at 4:31 upon realizing that someone named one of these delightful beings after King Ghidorah.
King Ghidorah and his many butts: Ichi, Ni, Kevin, Sho, Go, Roku…
As someone with crohn's disease, a colostomy, and a history of internal abscesses...down there...I am so happy to have found my spirit animal. 🤣 Subscribed to the pin club specifically for this one!
I love how the multi-butt is the least weird part about this animal. As usual, Sci-show and Bizarre Beasts don't click-bait, the videos are always way weirder than the title.
Reverse clickbait! 😂
Wow what a cool creature, I hope we find out how these worms survive and where they get their energy from
+
Sponge: "Good morning neighbour. Hey who is this little cutie? Never seen him before"
Ramisyllis: "My butt's stolon."
Sponge: "I did not ask about your butts, but that's unfortunate. Who is this little one again?"
Ramisyllis: "My butt's stolon!"
Sponge: "OK OK, just call the police. Plus you have some many butts, it's not a big deal"
Sponge talk to the little one: "OK who are you ?"
Stolon: "Ramisyllis' butt's stolon"
Sponge: "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I already knew that!!! I'm not the one who stole, just calm down"
Sometimes Bizarre Beasts makes an episode that just makes me sit there with my jaw open for a good 6 minutes. Well done.
This is quite possibly the best Bizarre Beasts episode of all time, as well as the MOST on-brand piece of Complexly media I've seen recently, oh my god. XDDD ...But also, speaking as a biologist and just sort of generally a fan of nature, WHAT THE HECK?? This has got to be a contender for the weirdest worm in existence! Properly living up to the title of Bizarre Beast; I would never have expected such a worm could exist!
That new pin looks like an ancient coat of arms...
The coat of arms of sir Butt-a-lot.
Don’t some animals breathe through their butts? Since sponges take in oxygen throughout their entire structure the oxygen level inside the sponge might be low, thus pressuring the worms to add extra branches to get more oxygen. Sort of like an inside out lung.
In practice it is the opposite of the Hydra of Lerna (instead of having 100 heads and only one "butt". The worm has only one head and 100 Butts)
I had guessed right with the "Guess the animal" but never a multi-butted worm. Then the pin of this worm is cute looks like a coat of arms of an alien
A butt-dra of the sea.
@@AyameFyuu an alien hydra, I hope it doesn't have "laser butts", like king Ghidorah with his throats.
Multiple rando-branching bodies each with their own heads and detach to scurry off.
That's John Carpenter level horrifying.
horrifying and incredibly cool-- imagine if the 'many butt' lineage became more evolutionarily widespread, what kinds of worms might evolve....
I always think "oh I know about that beast" on these, but then I end up learning so much I actually _didn't_ know. Stolons? Freaking wild, man
I'd like to see a pokedex entry for this one really.
It has 20 butts, in case some of them get stolen.
*BRANCHWORM*
*Type:* Water
This polychaete's body consists of a single head branching into hundreds of endings that protrude from the sponge inside which it lives. How it obtains nutrients is a mystery.
well here's a creature that is sure to be the butt of every joke
Lmao
What a weird and wonderful creature. Have you all considered the narwhal as a future bizarre beast? I think it is a good candidate because so many people think it is mythical and I'm sure you could find interesting research about the horn.
@BizarreBeasts Narwhal!!! My favourite SEA UNICORN
I never expected the phrase "autonomous butt" to be uttered with such sincerity.
I can't help but think of the South Park episode about genetic engineering where all the animals created had multiple butts, and now I know that nature really created something like that. I want to know why.
Nature is more concerned with what it can do than why it does it.
It's because Pig and Elephant DNA just won't splice!
Haven't you heard of that Loverboy song?
This is it. This is the most bizarre beast I have ever seen. A new bar has been set and it will not easily be cleared.
Nice episode, i loved being bombarded with all of these weird open ended... questions about this creature, with no answers. I hope i'll see an update on this creature somewhere sometime soon.
If there isn't a kid's picture book about how your butt can get a'Stolon, consider this a challenge of multiple proportions.❤️
The choice of putting an eye on every butt is very tasteful. :chef's kiss: Excellent design.
The joy I feel in hearing about these butt worms. So many butts but unknown what they even eat and butts are detachable. What oddities and bizarre creatures!
I adore them! And can’t wait to get the pin seems o joined at a great time.
I love how Earth always has the best sci-fi.
This might just be the most bizarre beast that you've ever bizarre beasted.
For me that title belongs to Gorgonorhynchus repens eternally and forever.
Maybe the worms eat parasites or macro bacteria? Fungi? Keep the sponge clean or something. And maybe the butts are also mouths? Would make the gut a little weird but I'm sure there've been weirder digestive systems in the animal kingdom. Would also make having lots of butts less of a drain on resources.
I've been waiting to see what that weird silhouette was
This is about as bizarre a beast as I've ever heard of; thank you for bringing news of it to the (TH-cam) world! I'd love to know how long this critter has been around - for as long as there have been sponges?? (maybe mitochondria might provide a clue, since finding any fossils seems incredibly unlikely), to know how many epochal upheavals and extinctions it has survived.
"Autonomous Butt" is going to be my band name.
"Butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, this is a worm shaped like a stalk, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off. And this is what they say, no one knows why they grow this way, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off, butt butt butt butt butt butt butt-off." (Parody of "Chicken Talk" by Richie Kavanagh.)
In all seriousness I think this worm either feeds through diffusion like some other worms do, or perhaps it feeds on its host sponge's table scraps and dead cells like a wrasse.
Listening to Hank talk about this creature and it's butt issues racks me up and makes me grin at how much fun he's clearly having talking about butts. Clearly, Hank is a butt guy. 😂🥰
Now I know what I will dedicate my life to. To learn all the mysteries of the butt worm
Ah, science.
The hypothesis where the worm absorbs its nutrients directly seems to be the only possibility. Everything about the critter seems to be about maximising its surface area.
Zefrank should see this, he'd love it
I name this creature the butt hydra
_"I like multi-butts and I cannot lie: you other brothers can deny...."_ < *Sir Worms - a - Lot*
At first I thought the thumbnail was, like, an x-rayed map of the contiguous united states, and this monstrous continent-spanning worm had exactly one booty in each state
*butt flies away and makes an entire family without knowing*
"These are questions for philosophers."
Love that I found another channel that Hank is involved with
Stuff of nightmare, horror and scifi movies this beast is. Thank God they're tiny and live in the ocean
boy i've heard the myth that if you cut a worm in half it simply becomes two worms before, i did not expect to learn the much more distressing truth that a worm's butt can sometimes produce a sex gremlin that will detach just to come and die
Man, worms are weird.
“Worm taxonomist” 😂
These are questions for philosophers... I think Hank needs to collaborate with the Great philosopher Ze Frank.
I think this is the most bizarre beast you've covered yet.
Thank you all for making and sharing this video!
Truly the most bizarre beast yet
Truly the most bizarre beast....I really want that pin.
'Autonomous Butts' -- Band name.
Wow! You finally did a video on a species I requested! Thank you so much!
It’s so rare to see something truly new. Fun!
huh, so basically a tree, but worm
parallel evolution at its peak
Imagine a majestic forest of towering worm-butts, swaying gently in the breeze.
I'm just as concerned about the full-size gamete delivery zombies these worms deploy as I am about the number of butts.
Well at least it can claim that it's the butt of the joke
I love the humor this video has. It had me laughing multiple times. XD
Mephisto from South Park's been busy.
So, I thought this worm was cool and I love the way Hank explains things 😂 But I have to wonder: If the worm can make new stolons from scratch, and the stolon has its own brain and nervous system, shouldn’t scientists be studying the crap out of that for applications to neuroscience? Like growing a whole new brain has to come with something that could help with Alzheimer’s or TBI or strokes, right?
This was mind blowing.
What is a butt? Only philosophers can say.
This pin looks like a shield crest: “My family emblem is a worm with many bums!”
I wonder how such a unique and bizarre beast that was discovered a decade ago was never studied extensively enough for us to even know how it eats. I guess scientists had more important things to do than study a butt branch.
please don't forget the "Seven Assed Galapagos Turtle" created by Dr Mephesto.
Play a drinking game to this video and take a shot every time Hank says "butt"
Well, that sure is a thing that exists.
Are you sure?
Imagine a human with hundreds of URANUS, it would need a yellow pant and we have spongebob squarepants
Would you like your very own Ramisyllis multicaudata pin designed by Mary Cirino? You can get yours now right here! store.dftba.com/collections/bizarrebeasts/products/bizarre-beasts-pin-subscription-1
it's a reverse hydra
I must know this at 4am in the morning
I- Um- This is just unsettling.
Nature was on a LOT of shrooms when it made this bad Larry
Some male octopuses have an arm specialized for reproduction. It is detached and swims to the female to deposit the sperm. So even some very complex organisms have detachable genitalia.
However, they are limited to one reproductive arm per male octopus.
what if the digestive system is vestigial, and it's a remnant as it further evolves more and more surface area for filter feeding? Basically evolving to act like a sponge itself. Hence all the butts: they're a unique way to give it more surface area.
In the worm quest for booty, this worm chooses quantity over quality
of course it had to be Australia.
Dr. Alphonse Mephesto is very interested in this worm.
Sounds like the Beast of Craggy Island, instead of a mouth it's got 4 arses!
_"A butt on its own quest for booty."_
Wow, this episode puts the bizarre in Bizarre Beasts!
This reminds me of the aphids episode, or a half-remembered fact about teeny tiny generations of trees- that the body plan and life alternates between generations, so half of them are worms that live in sponges and half of them are worms that go out and sexually reproduce.
It's always great when Hank talks about butts. But(t) this is just weird 😅
Imagine a video game based on this creature as it as you play as the worm, generating extra "butts" with physics
Excellent, there are never too many Butts.
Think is possibly the most bizarre beast
An autonomous butt sounds like something from a bad horror movie.
I can imagine this creature keeps the sponge's channels open for better filter feeding, and probably generates some tailored food for the worm
A wise man once said: “It’s kind of a “Give me a kernel of corn and let’s play butthole pachinko” kind of worm.”
Help! My butt is gone! It’s been Stolon!
Butt is legs!
That’s a lot of if’s and’s or butts. I reconnected with my childhood sense of humour today. Ty
I have been watching this channel since it came out, but this is the first thing to make me stop and think, "wtf is this?"
Are we sure it doesn't also breathe from its butts like some other animals do?