46-525: Kuphus is a genus of shipworms , marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae . While there are four extinct species in the genus, the only extant species is Kuphus polythalamius (also incorrectly spelled as Kuphus polythalamia ). It is the longest bivalve mollusc in the world, where the only known permanent natural habitat is Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat in the Philippines . Members of this genus secrete calcareous tubes. Based only on
92-526: A navigable river. Henry David Thoreau 's poem "Though All the Fates" pays homage to "New England's worm" which, in the poem, infests the hull of "[t]he vessel, though her masts be firm". In time, no matter what the ship carries or where she sails, the shipworm "her hulk shall bore, / [a]nd sink her in the Indian seas". The hull of the ship wrecked by a whale, inspiring Moby Dick , had been weakened by shipworms. In
138-487: A news feature on a giant tamilok , the local name for the common shipworm , was broadcast on a local TV network. The report by local media celebrity Jessica Soho suggests that local residents in the province of Sultan Kudarat , Mindanao island, were familiar enough with the creature to the point of treating it as a delicacy. After the discovery of the species in Sultan Kudarat, various environmental groups launched
184-506: Is carried by currents. They also travel inside the wooden-hulled vessels that help increase their spread worldwide. However, the origin of T. navalis remains uncertain due to the widespread usage of ships in global trade and the resulting spreading of shipworms. During the free-living larva stage, the species colonizes new habitats and spreads. Larvae are extremely sensitive to the presence of wood and will take advantage of any opportunity to attach to and penetrate wooden structures. In
230-415: Is cylindrical, slender, naked, and superficially vermiform (worm-shaped). In spite of their slender, worm-like forms, shipworms possess the characteristic morphology of bivalves . The ctinidia lie mainly within the branchial siphon , through which the animal pumps the water that passes over the gills . The two siphons are very long and protrude from the posterior end of the animal. Where they leave
276-555: Is deadly to these invertebrates . Their ideal temperature range is 15 to 25 °C (59 to 77 °F) and therefore T. navalis can be found in temperate and tropical zones. The shipworm lives in waters with oceanic salinity . Accordingly, it is rare in the brackish Baltic Sea, where wooden shipwrecks are preserved for much longer than in the oceans. The range of various species has changed over time based on human activity. Many waters in developed countries that had been plagued by shipworms were cleared of them by pollution from
322-447: Is harvested, sold, and eaten from those taken by local natives in the mangrove forests of West Papua and some part of Borneo Island , Indonesia , and the central coastal peninsular regions of Thailand near Ko Phra Thong . T. navalis grow faster than any other bivalve because it does not require much energy to create its small shell. They can grow to be about 30 cm (12 in) long in just six months. Mussels and oysters , on
368-433: Is not just the home of the black slimy worm. Instead, it acts as the primary source of nourishment in a non-traditional way. K. polythalamia sifts mud and sediment with its gills. Most shipworms are relatively smaller and feed on rotten wood. This shipworm instead relies on a beneficial symbiotic bacteria living in its gills. The bacteria use the hydrogen sulfide for energy to produce organic compounds that in turn feed
414-404: Is referred to as tambelo and is considered as a delicacy in daily meals. It can be eaten fresh and raw (cleaned) or cooked (cleaned and boiled) as well and usually marinated with lime juice and chili peppers. Since T. navalis are related to clams , mussels , and oysters , the taste of the flesh has been compared to a wide variety of foods, from milk to oysters . Similarly, the delicacy
460-537: Is the most commonly mentioned. The best known species is Teredo navalis . Historically, Teredo concentrations in the Caribbean Sea have been substantially higher than in most other salt water bodies. Genera within the family Teridinidae include: The Teredo genus has approximately 20 species that live in wooden materials such as logs, pilings, ship, and practically any other submerged wooden construction from temperate to tropical ocean zones. The species
506-515: Is thought to be native to the Atlantic Ocean and was once known as the Atlantic shipworm, although its exact origin is unknown. The longest marine bivalve, Kuphus polythalamia , was found from a lagoon near Mindanao island in the southeastern part of the Philippines , which belongs to the same group of mussels and clams. The existence of huge mollusks was established for centuries and studied by
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#1732852383792552-495: The Baltic Sea , free-floating piles carved by shipworms can be observed floating hundreds of kilometers away from the original wooden structures. The limiting element for propagation is salinity , which must be greater than 8% for successful reproduction. Reproduction occurs during warm summer months, and the larvae mature for production in just eight weeks. Each year, several generations can be produced. Consequently, freshwater
598-635: The Industrial Revolution and the modern era; as environmental regulation led to cleaner waters, shipworms have returned. Climate change has also changed the range of species; some once found only in warmer and more salty waters like the Caribbean have established habitats in the Mediterranean . Shipworms greatly damage wooden hulls and marine piling , and have been the subject of much study to find methods to avoid their attacks. Copper sheathing
644-464: The Philippines , Indonesia and Mozambique . However, the only thoroughly studied natural habitat of the species is in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat in the Philippines . Shipworms See text The shipworms , also called Teredo worms or simply Teredo (from Ancient Greek τερηδών ( terēdṓn ) 'wood-worm', via Latin terēdō ), are marine bivalve molluscs in
690-511: The Philippines , the shipworm is called tamilok and is eaten as a delicacy. It is prepared as kinilaw —that is, raw (cleaned) but marinated with vinegar or lime juice , chopped chili peppers and onions, a process very similar to shrimp ceviche . Similarly, T. navalis can be found inside the dead and rotten trunk of mangroves in West Papua, Indonesia . To the locals, the Kamoro tribe, it
736-648: The type species of the genus Serpula , a genus of polychaete worms. In 1770, Guettard introduced the name Kuphus for the genus, realising that the animal was not a worm but a mollusc. This meant that, according to the ICZN rules , the specific name became Kuphus polythalamius (Linnaeus, 1758). Fossils of Kuphus polythalamius have been found dating back to the Oligocene . They came from rocks in various tropical and sub-tropical areas including Indonesia, Pakistan, Jamaica, Grenada, South Africa and Somalia. Fossils of
782-731: The Caribbean region. They date back to the Oligocene and Miocene and have been used for absolute dating of the rocks, using the relative proportions of two strontium isotopes in the fossils. Fossils of the extinct species, Kuphus fistula , dating from the Miocene and Pliocene , have been found in various locations in Virginia in the United States. Fossils found near Warsaw by paleontologist , Friedrich von Huene in 1941 were misidentified as being
828-604: The Norse Saga of Erik the Red , Bjarni Herjólfsson , said to be the first European to discover the Americas, had his ship drift into the Irish Sea where it was eaten up by shipworms. He allowed half the crew to escape in a smaller boat covered in seal tar, while he stayed behind to drown with his men. Today shipworms are primarily eaten in parts of Southeast Asia . In Palawan and Aklan in
874-625: The anterior end of the worm, used for excavating the burrow. The protective role of the shells is lost because the animal spends all its life surrounded by wood. Teredo navalis develops from eggs to metamorphosing larvae in about five weeks. They spend half of this time in the mother's gill chamber before being discharged as free-swimming larvae into the sea. Their sexes alternate, young are hermaphrodites while adults can be either male or female. Typically, organisms are male at first and female subsequently. A second male to female phase may occur, however shipworms rarely live long enough to complete
920-420: The aperture of the mantle lies between them. The small "foot" (corresponding to the foot of a clam) can protrude through the aperture. When shipworms bore into submerged wood, bacterial symbionts embedded within a sub-organ called the typhlosole in the shipworm gut, aid in the digestion of the wood particles ingested, The Alteromonas or Alteromonas -sub-group of bacteria identified as the symbiont species in
966-570: The bottom, the planks will be thereby entirely secured from the effects of the worm." In the Netherlands the shipworm caused a crisis in the 18th century by attacking the timber that faced the sea dike . After that the dikes had to be faced with stones. In 2009, Teredo caused several minor collapses along the Hudson River waterfront in Hoboken, New Jersey , due to damage to underwater pilings. In
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#17328523837921012-555: The calcareous tube, this species was originally thought by Linnaeus to be a tube worm, so he placed it in the genus Serpula . Despite the fact that Kuphus polythalamius is now known to be a mollusc, its common name is the giant tube worm . Since 1981 however, the name "giant tube worm" has also been applied to the hydrothermal vent species Riftia pachyptila , which is indeed a worm, an annelid . The sole living species is: Extinct species are: Large, tusk-shaped, calcareous tubes were occasionally washed up on beaches. There
1058-449: The course of its evolution. The scientists are planning to study the microbes found in the single gill of K. polythalamia to find a new possible antimicrobial substance. Teredo navalis are a cosmopolitan species that can be found both in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Since they occupy wooden flotsam and natural driftwood such as dead tree trunks, they are spread as the wood
1104-512: The discovery of a rare live specimen. The sample was gunmetal black, and very muscular. While other shipworms feed on submerged wood, K. polythalamius was found to use bacteria in its gills to use hydrogen sulphide in the water as an energy source used to convert carbon dioxide into nutrients. In this respect it resembles the unrelated giant tube worm , which actually is a worm. Videos uploaded to YouTube , however, already show Philippine scientists dissecting specimens as far back as 2010, after
1150-489: The early 19th century, engineer Marc Brunel observed that the shipworm's valves simultaneously enabled it to tunnel through wood and protected it from being crushed by the swelling timber. With that idea, he designed the first tunnelling shield , a modular iron tunnelling framework which enabled workers to tunnel through the unstable riverbed beneath the Thames. The Thames Tunnel was the first successful large tunnel built under
1196-446: The end of the main part of the body, the siphons pass between a pair of calcareous plates called pallets. If the animal is alarmed, it withdraws the siphons and the pallets protectively block the opening of the tunnel. The pallets are not to be confused with the two valves of the main shell, which are at the anterior end of the animal. Because they are the organs that the animal applies to boring its tunnel, they generally are located at
1242-627: The extinct species, Kuphus melitensis , are found in Late Oligocene-aged coralline limestone of Malta . Fossils of the extinct species, Kuphus incrassatus , have been found in rocks in Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Florida and Mississippi. Another species is Kuphus arenarius that have been recorded in Oligocene to Miocene-aged limestone layers of Asmari Formation in Iran. They are common in sedimentary Tertiary rocks in
1288-429: The family Teredinidae , a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies. They are notorious for boring into (and commonly eventually destroying) wood that is immersed in seawater , including such structures as wooden piers , docks , and ships; they drill passages by means of a pair of very small shells (" valves ") borne at one end, with which they rasp their way through. They are sometimes called "termites of
1334-399: The heaviest species, growing to over 200 kg (440 lb) and measuring up to 120 cm (47 in) in length, but Kuphus polythalamius holds the record for the largest bivalve by length. A specimen owned by Victor Dan in the United States has a length of 1,532 mm (60 in), which is considerably longer than the largest giant clam. Today, Kuphus polythalamius is found in
1380-413: The latter's extremity. Without the gills, the viscera only cover one-fourth of the total length and only their anterior part is partially covered by the shell. Shipworms are marine animals in the phylum Mollusca , order Bivalvia , family Teredinidae . They were included in the now obsolete order Eulamellibranchiata , in which many documents still place them. Ruth Turner of Harvard University
1426-430: The most primitive of the teredinids. She believed that the anatomy of the tube was such that the animal would not have been able to burrow in wood as other modern teredinids do, but would instead have lived buried in soft sediments. In April 2017, the species became the focus of international attention when the announcement of a scientific study conducted in the Philippines was misinterpreted by foreign news reporters as
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1472-457: The mud of mangrove swamps. A typical specimen measures 100 cm (40 in) in length and is shaped like a truncated elephant's tusk. The wider, anterior end is closed, has a rounded tip, and is about 110 mm (4.5 in) in diameter. From there the tube tapers to an open, posterior end about 38 mm (1.5 in) in diameter, with a central septum. Siphons project through this end for feeding and respiration. They can be withdrawn inside
1518-426: The other hand, with their much bigger shells, can take up to two years to reach harvestable size . Kuphus polythalamius Kuphus polythalamius (known as giant tamilok ) is a species of shipworm , a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Teredinidae . The tube of Kuphus polythalamius is known as a crypt and is a calcareous secretion designed to enable the animal to live in its preferred habitat,
1564-410: The scientists, based on the shells they left behind that were the size of baseball bats (length 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in), diameter 6 cm (2.4 in)). The bivalve is a rare creature that spends its life inside an elephant tusk -like hard shell made of calcium carbonate . It has a protective cap over its head which it reabsorbs to burrow into the mud for food. The case of the shipworm
1610-510: The sea". Carl Linnaeus assigned the common name Teredo to the best-known genus of shipworms in the 10th edition of his taxonomic magnum opus , Systema Naturæ (1758). Removed from its burrow, the fully grown teredo ranges from several centimeters to about a meter in length, depending on the species. An average adult shipworm measures 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) in length and less than one-quarter inch (6.4 mm) in diameter, but some species grow to considerable size. The body
1656-445: The second phase. They have a lifespan of 1 to 3 years. Shipworm anatomy reveals the typical organs of a bivalve mollusk, although with dimensional or positional peculiarities due to the thinness and length of the occupied space. Furthermore, some structures find no equivalent in other bivalve groups. Normally, the shipworm's body fills the entire length of the gallery, but the anterior region can retract itself slightly with respect to
1702-441: The shipworm gut via a special organ called the gland of Deshayes. These secretions aid the shipworm's own carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) in digesting the wood particles in combination with the enzymes and potentially other metabolites secreted by the symbiont bacterial in the typhlosole. The excavated burrow is usually lined with a calcareous tube. The valves of the shell of shipworms are small separate parts located at
1748-432: The shipworms, similar to the process of photosynthesis used by green plants to convert the carbon dioxide in the air into simple carbon compounds . Scientists found that K. polythalamia cooperates with different bacteria than other shipworms, which could be the reason why it evolved from consuming rotten wood to living on hydrogen sulfide in the mud. The internal organs of the shipworm have shrunk from lack of use over
1794-456: The teeth and parts of the jaw of a new species of dinosaur , which he named Succinodon putzeri . It was later determined that these were in fact the fossil remains of a marine boring bivalve, a previously undescribed species of Kuphus . Today, Kuphus polythalamius is found in the western Pacific Ocean, the western and eastern Indian Ocean and the Indo-Malaysian area. The range includes
1840-407: The tube and the end can be sealed with a set of specialised plates or "pallets". The two small valves of the mollusc are inside the tube along with the mantle , gut and other soft organs. In the intact but otherwise empty tube found on the strandline , they can be seen by X-ray photography. The giant clam ( Tridacna gigas ) is generally considered to be the largest bivalve mollusc. It is indeed
1886-438: The tunnel's end. They are borne on the slightly thickened, muscular anterior end of the cylindrical body and they are roughly triangular in shape and markedly concave on their interior surfaces. The outer surfaces are convex and in most species are deeply sculpted into sharp grinding surfaces with which the animals bore their way through the wood or similar medium in which they live and feed. The valves of shipworms are separated and
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1932-431: The typhlosole, are known to digest lignin, and wood material in general. The tough molecular layers of lignin surround the cellulose elementary fibrils in the wood particles, and the lignin must be digested initially to allow access by other enzymes into the cellulose for digestion. Another bacterial species ( Teredinibacter turnerae ), in the gills secrete a variety of cellulose-digesting enzymes which may be secreted into
1978-433: The western Pacific Ocean, the western and eastern Indian Ocean and the Indo-Malaysian area. The range includes the Philippines , Indonesia and Mozambique . However, the only thoroughly studied natural habitat of the species is in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat in the Philippines . Marine biologist Ruth Turner studied shipworms and considered that their common ancestor would have been very like Kuphus polythalamius ,
2024-441: Was disagreement among zoologists in the 18th century as to whether the creature which made one of these was a polychaete tube-worm or came from a mollusc . Linnaeus described the species in 1758. He considered that it was a serpulid worm and named it Serpula arenaria , a name which in 1767 he changed to Serpula polythalamia . There was some confusion as to precisely which taxon he was describing, but S. polythalamius became
2070-543: Was the leading 20th century expert on the Teredinidae; she published a detailed monograph on the family, the 1966 volume A Survey and Illustrated Catalogue of the Teredinidae published by the Museum of Comparative Zoology . More recently, the endosymbionts that are found in the gills have been subject to study the bioconversion of cellulose for fuel energy research. Shipworm species comprise several genera , of which Teredo
2116-623: Was used on wooden ships in the latter 18th century and afterwards, as a method of preventing damage by teredo worms. The first historically documented use of copper sheathing was experiments held by the British Royal Navy with HMS Alarm , which was coppered in 1761 and thoroughly inspected after a two-year cruise. In a letter from the Navy Board to the Admiralty dated 31 August 1763 it was written "that so long as copper plates can be kept upon
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