That’s the headline. It turns out, all it means is that an extinct variety of sea worm shaped sorta kinda like a penis used to live in discarded sea shells.
Yawn.
But when you phrase it like that it makes me want to scrunch over and jam my knees together. Penis Worms!!! Ick!
Also, while this individual species of priapulid is long gone, the phylum is very much still around.
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Priapulida (priapulid worms, from Gr. πριάπος, priāpos 'Priapus' + Lat. -ul-, diminutive), sometimes referred to as penis worms, is a phylum of unsegmented marine worms. The name of the phylum relates to the Greek god of fertility, because their general shape and their extensible spiny introvert (eversible) proboscis may resemble the shape of a human penis. They live in the mud and in comparatively shallow waters up to 90 metres (300 f...
Is THAT what that thread was about? I thought it was another of those ones about tonsil stones.
Hey, it’s a three year old thread. You can’t blame me for not knowing it had an addendum about new Penis Worm news.
And it still makes me cringe to write that.
Priapulida? Uh huh, okay, Latin taxonomy boy, ISWYDT
BTW, these are not priapulids:
Are you thinking of candiru?
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Candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa), also known as cañero, toothpick fish, or vampire fish, is a species of parasitic freshwater catfish in the family Trichomycteridae native to the Amazon Basin where it is found in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The definition of candiru differs between authors. The word has been used to refer to only Vandellia cirrhosa, the entire genus Vandellia, the subfamily Vandelliinae, or even ...
Priapulida do resemble another ocean worm, Sipuncula , the peanut worm that shows up in aquariums.