Rare Footage: Watch a Shimmering Deep-Sea ‘Scrub Brush’ Move

By Bethanie Hestermann

Published

11/23/2024

Over a thousand people chimed in on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s recent post sharing an unnamed polychaete (a deep-sea worm) moving along the bottom of the ocean. Bristles cover the bizarre creature, and many commenters liken the animal to a pair of false eyelashes scuttling about on the seafloor. Many others compare it to some sort of deep-sea toilet scrub brush. Making the video even more strange, the bristles appear to shimmer as it the polychaete moves.

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“To describe this polychaete, one simply must use jazz hands—it is the only way to capture this deep-sea worm’s dazzle!” wrote the Schmidt Ocean Institute in its Instagram post sharing the footage taken during a deep-sea research expedition using ROVs to capture footage of the seafloor. “Some worms are bioluminescent, but this sassy sparkler has protein structures in the bristles that make them iridescent.”

The video is great, but the comment section might be even greater.

“This is that crap I have to clean out of the shower drain every two weeks,” writes one person.

“Swim[m]ing mustache,” wrote another.

“If these were lashes I would wear them every day of my life,” another person declared.

“Hi, I need this but as a cat toy,” wrote another.

Watch the “sassy sparkler,” the shimmering deep-sea worm/scrub brush do its thing (and then read through people’s comments) here: