This is cool. A new type of worm, found 9,400 feet below the ocean’s surface.

And dig this, they’re taking Mir’s commune concept to heart. Dig this:

“Initially we were puzzled why every worm was a female,” Vrijenhoek said in a telephone interview. He said Rouse took some worms to his laboratory for study and discovered tiny male worms living inside the females.

There were as many as 50 to 100 males within each female, Vrijenhoek said.

The males still contained bits of yolk, as if they had never developed past their larval stage, but they also contained large amounts of sperm.

The female worms, regardless of size, were full of eggs, the researchers noted….

“These worms appear to be the ecological equivalent of dandelions — a weedy species that grows rapidly, makes lots of eggs, and disperses far and wide,” Vrijenhoek said.

CNN.com – Worms discovered living on whale bones – Jul 29, 2004