This Antarctic Worm With Teeth Is Straight Out of a Horror Movie

What is the Eulagisca gigantea?

Before we can reveal all the secrets of this toothy ocean worm, you need to get to know him. Eulagisca gigantea is an eight-inch-long creature…hold a banana in your hand and you’ve got the right idea. As you probably figured out from the teeth, this worm is a predator, one who roams the ocean looking for the smaller creatures that will become his next meal.

With that being said, there’s a surprising amount that we don’t know about this underwater creature. It was only discovered in 1939, and it’s hardly been studied since then. That means there is plenty about the birth, life cycle, and death of this wacky worm that we can only learn through further study.

Those teeth aren’t just for show

You probably knew right away that Eulagisca gigantea uses those teeth to eat smaller creatures. After all, what else could it possibly need these chompers for? As it turns out, though, those teeth do more than make the worm scary, and they do far more than just help him chow down. Believe it or not, those teeth help this scary thing navigate the ocean depths!

While scientists and researchers are still studying this Antarctic worm, it appears to use its teeth to swim and crawl along the sea floor. Additionally, the teeth likely function as a dense mechanism…a way of scaring other predators that might pose a threat. Of course, most fish are scared of Eulagisca gigantea, and for good reason: when it’s ready to eat, this thing’s throat extends, which reveals the sharp teeth inside. Just think of the little monster coming out of the big one’s mouth in Alien and you’ve got the right idea!

Part of a very big underwater family

Unless you know plenty about ocean life, you may think that the Eulagisca gigantea is fairly unique. After all, you’ve probably never seen anything that looked quite like that, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that this creature is one of its kind. Interestingly, though, he’s part of an extended underwater family that extends all around the world!

That’s because this Antarctic worm is a polychaete worm, and there are actually a whopping 8,000 species of these things in the water. Or, more accurately, 8,000 species that we know of, as one 2016 study concluded we’ve only discovered about half of the marine worm species in the world. You know what that means: in the coming years, this creepy critter’s extended family is only going to get larger!

The worm that broke the internet

Most people are shocked to discover the Eulagisca gigantea for the first time. After all, something this big and scary is bound to leave an impression! But this might not be your first time finding out about it because this rascally worm ended up going viral via a Facebook post not that long ago and subsequently broke the internet.

As you might imagine, Facebook users were both fascinated and horrified by this worm’s unconventional appearance. Many speculated about what its teeth were used for, and many tried to figure out which movie monsters this thing reminded them of. And, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, more than a few people discussed how cute they thought this underwater native was.

The mystery of the sea deepens by the day

There’s only so much we know about the Eulagisca gigantea. As mentioned before, it was discovered less than a century ago and has hardly been studied. It can be frustrating to not know all that much, but it’s also exciting to know that so many potentially mind-blowing answers are just waiting to be discovered.

And that is the greatest lesson here: that the ocean is as mysterious as it is beautiful. Sure, exploring space and colonizing Mars sounds cool, but we’re not quite ready to start living in a sci-fi movie. We’d rather chill right here on Earth and learn more about the creepiest (or at least, the toothiest) mysteries of the sea.