FROZEN HEAT | Volume 1

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Figure 2.5: Cold-seep organisms. Examples from the methane seep ecosystem. A, C, E and F are chemosymbiotic animals whose energy source is hydrogen sulfide produced by methane-degrading microorganisms in the sediment. A: vestimentiferan tubeworm – Lamellibrachia barhami , B: lithodid crab embracing tube cores placed in a field of vesicomyid clams and bacterial mat C: solemyid clam – Acharax sp. D: Snail – Neptunea amianta and their egg towers attached to rock. E: Yeti crabs – Kiwa puravida , the ‘fur’ on their claws is filamentous symbiotic bacteria which they nourish by waving in sulphide-rich fluids, and then consume F: Thyasiridae, Quepos Seep (400 m water depth), Costa Rica margin G: Alvinocarid shrimp, Mound 12, Costa Rica margin (1 000 mwater depth) (Photos courtesy of Greg Rouse and Lisa Levin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography).

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