Recently, butts have been all the rage. We easily see Kardashian butts, Bey Butts, JLo Butts, Minaj Butts everywhere. So, more butts the better, right? A friend just told me (let’s call him Gordon) about a sea worm with endless butts. The Ramisyllis multicaudata. Apparently, in the 18th century a sea sponge was dredged up by a ship, and in those tiny holes that all sponges have there was a living creature. A worm with endless butts. Now, this worm is a rare find, and no one knows much about it. It’s a branch-worm. It grows by spreading it’s body out into trees. Primarily found in Australian waters, this guy is definitely a parasite to the sea-sponge. However, the worm with many butts is a huge mystery to scientists. What can be said is that is largely independent from other branched species (meaning it didn’t evolve to grow limbs or—in this case— butts from another genus). It just evolved to …show more content…
What is known about the worm is that it has one head, but then each extremity can independently grow more branches until the entire host-sponge is filled to capacity! In fact, multitudo (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/multitudo) means many, multitude, and you can see this classification in other species, like the two-tailed swallowtail butterfly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_multicaudata). Many ends. Many tails. Many butts. The relationship between the host and the worm with many butts is unknown. We aren’t sure if it is a beneficial relationship, like that between sharks and pilot fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_fish) or if the worm is slowly killing the sea sponge. It seems that, either way, the branched butts absorb nutrients to support itself. It makes sense, because how can one head feed that large a body? I, for one, have never been more interested in butts. The potential this guy has is only beginning, and I think he has a lot to show us. I’m looking forward to hearing more about Ramisyllis multicaudata, a worm with many