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This ribbon worm has set a world record
"We have many of them along the Norwegian coast, including those that can become 50 metres long," says a researcher.
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"More attention should be paid to them!" biologist Jonathan Allen told Gizmodo.
He's talking about an animal that lives along the coast of Norway, but which few people ever notice. Meet the ribbon worm.
This animal is long, soft, and lacks both a skeleton and teeth. It lives on the seabed and along the coast. Some of them can become absolutely enormous.
"The largest can reach up to 50 metres," researcher Gro van der Meeren tells Science Norway.
The 'ancient' worm
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Allen's wish for attention has now been heard.
He has kept a very special ribbon worm at the bottom of a tank in a lab at the College of William & Mary in the United States.
There it has lived comfortably and peacefully. It hasn't needed to hunt and has instead fed on small peanut worms in the tank. In captivity, the temperature is ideal and the dangers are few.
All this comfort has allowed the ribbon worm to grow old. 30 years may not seem impressive to us, but for a ribbon worm in captivity, it's a record.
Previously, they have only lived about 3 years in tanks, meaning B has lived ten times longer.
50 metres long and almost invisible
The species is called Baseodiscus punnetti.
"But because of its age, the researchers in the lab call it Methuselah," says van der Meeren. She researches small animals in the sea.
Methuselah is the name of a man in the Bible who is said to have lived to be 969 years old.
"It's a bit amusing. But the truth is that we have no idea how old ribbon worms can actually get," says van der Meeren.
Today, around 1,300 ribbon worm species are known worldwide, according to the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia.
They are thin and flexible, but can also curl up into a ball.
"We have many of them along the Norwegian coast, at least nine different species. Even those that can grow to 50 metres. But we rarely notice them," she says.
Why is that?
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"I don't think people understand what they're looking at. And they hide well among seaweed and rocks along the shore," she says.
We can be very wrong
The researcher is not very surprised that a ribbon worm in captivity has become so old.
"It has everything it needs. Good temperature, plenty of food, and safety," she says.
She adds that penguins in captivity often live twice as long as they would in the wild.
But we know little about the ribbon worms deep on the seabed or along the shoreline.
"When we see small, thin, and strange animals, we might assume that they can't live very long. But we could be completely mistaken," she says.
We can determine a human's age by studying bones or teeth.
So can we determine the age of ribbon worms?
"No, that's actually quite difficult. Ribbon worms don't have teeth or skeletons," she says. "So in this case, the age is known because the worm has been kept in captivity."
Could live even longer
Van der Meeren believes B might grow even older.
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"It looks healthy and well," she says.
Which makes it fascinating to imagine how old they might become in the wild.
It was student Chloe Goodsell who first wondered how old the lab worm actually was.
Researcher van der Meeren says it’s wonderful to have young researchers involved.
"Sometimes research simply stops when a researcher grows old and retires. In those cases, it can be hard, for example, to keep track of an animal’s age," she says.
With Chloe Goodsell on the team, the ribbon worm may be monitored for many years to come.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on ung.forskning.no
Reference:
Goodsell et al. 'Baseodiscus the Eldest: First Report of a Decades-Long Lifespan in a Nemertean Species', Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 2025. DOI: 10.1002/jez.70052 (Abstract)
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