@mbari_news: This worm is always on the go. While most worms crawl on the seafloor or slither through the mud, the gossamer worm (Tomopteris spp.) swims in the waters far above the ocean floor. Tomopteris lives in the midwater—an expanse of water deep below the surface and far above the bottom—and never touches the rocks and sand below. Tomopteris is also a fast and efficient swimmer. Researchers in MBARI’s Bioinspiration Lab and our collaborators at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History have been studying the mechanics of the gossamer worm’s swimming. They used high-tech tools—from lasers that illuminate the flow of water around the animal to high-speed video that captures rapid movements in detail—to understand how these worms swim so well. #DeepSea #DeepOcean #FishTok #MarineBiology #GossamerWorm