Natural History at Home – Lights, Camo, Attraction! Exploring Ocean Bioluminescence
December 11, 2021
Katie Derloshon:
My name is Katie, and I am excited to welcome you to today's program,"Lights, Camo, Attraction!" Exploring Ocean Bioluminescence. Today, we have special guest expert ocean educator, Lara Noren, who works with me at the museum. Lara has joined us in the past to learn about some amazing ocean animals. I am super excited to hear what she has to share with us today. Now, together with Lara, we are going to learn about bioluminescence, so what bioluminescence is, different reasons why animals might have this feature, being bioluminescent, and create our own artwork inspired by one of these animals that we discuss today. So again, supply reminder, please, again, make sure you have some materials ready to go, as well as a space to work on together. Here is a list of the supplies that you'll need.
Katie Derloshon:
And, as we're working on our craft together today, I will be flipping over to my craft cam, so let me show you what that looks like. Here are my supplies ready to go. I've got my paper, I've got some scrap paper and a piece of sturdier cardstock paper, some markers, a pencil, scissors, some tape, and a piece of string. All right, so please make sure to have some supplies ready to go. You at least need a paper and a pencil. But, before we get into the craft, we've got to learn about what we're going to learn about today. So, let's go ahead and get started by saying hello to Lara. Hi, Lara.
Lara Noren:
Hi, everybody. How are you doing today, Katie? And, welcome everyone, thanks for having me on this program.
Katie Derloshon:
Welcome, welcome. I'm so glad that you could join us here at Natural History at Home again. Though, for those families who might not have met you before, can you share with us a little bit about yourself, what you do at the museum, and maybe your current favorite ocean animal?
Lara Noren:
Absolutely. Hi, everybody. My name is Lara, and I am an ocean educator at the Natural History Museum. I think I have one of the best jobs in the world, because I get to talk with people from all around the world about the ocean every single day. I really was curious about the ocean and nature from a really young age. I grew up in Minnesota, which is in the middle of the US. Although that was really far away from the ocean, I still was able to learn a lot about it through books and TV shows. And then, from there, I went to college and I got a degree in marine biology. I did want to share with all of you my current favorite ocean animal. Honestly, it changes all the time because ocean animals are great. But, I thought maybe this would be appropriate for the holidays. So, this is a Christmas tree worm. They're really cool because they have these spirally feeding tentacles, and they're really colorful, and you can find them on coral reefs, especially in the Caribbean. They're really fun because when you swim by them you can kind of move your finger towards them and they'll suck all of those feeding tentacles inside of a coral head, and they'll be totally gone. They'll disappear.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow. And this is a type of worm?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, it is, which you wouldn't think that that really looks like a worm. But, worms in the ocean, they can be cool. They can be colorful and full of frills, and all of that stuff.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. This definitely doesn't really... When I think of worm, I don't think of something that looks like this. Thanks for sharing all about the Christmas tree worm. I see in the Q&A some friends are also sharing some of their favorite animals. I see Taylor's favorite is a seahorse.
Lara Noren:
That's a good one.
Katie Derloshon:
They're pretty cool. All right, so, Lara, I am so excited, again, that you can join us. In the past, you shared about decorator crabs, you shared about narwhals, and, my personal favorite, you shared about the whale shark. And, after hearing today's title of the program, I'm thinking you have something really neat to share with us today as well.
Lara Noren:
Yes. Thanks for having me back again, Katie. We have talked about many different unique animals in the ocean together. Our explorations have led us through talking about some different places in the ocean too. Today, the animals that I have to share with you are far below the surface.
Katie Derloshon:
Far below, like deep in the ocean?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, exactly. So, some might already know this, but the ocean can be deep in some places, and shallow in others. It's usually shallow at the coast. So, let's take a look at how this works. Imagine, you are in a submarine, diving from the surface of the ocean. If you follow the ocean floor towards the bottom of the ocean, one of the first things that you would notice is that it starts to get dark. Light is one of the ways that scientists talk about the different zones in the ocean. When we first start our submarine dive, there is a lot of light because the sunshine is really present in that top area. When more and more sunlight is filtered out as we get deeper, our submarine enters the twilight zone. That's usually between about 200 or 1000 meters, or about 650 to 3300 feet. Animals that live here are used to living in cold and a low-light environment.
But, the ocean gets even darker than the twilight zone. Below the twilight zone, our submarine continues to go deeper into the ocean, and it has now entered the deep ocean, or the midnight zone. This is a place where there is no light, lots of space, cold temperatures, and unique creatures. The ocean can get very deep in some places because the ocean floor isn't flat. There can be deep trenches that extend into the ocean for miles.
Katie Derloshon:
Very cool. Thank you for taking us through that quick dive of the ocean zones. Lara, I see lots of other friends are sharing some of their favorite animals. I see lots of dolphins and sharks. My personal favorite are sharks. I'm actually wearing some sharks today.
Lara Noren:
Nice. We definitely have a lot of cool sharks in the twilight zone and the deep ocean.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. Lara, you just shared that the ocean has many zones. And again, scientists talk about these different zones based on how much light that they receive. So, the tops, or the surface zone, receives the most light. While, the twilight zone receives less light. And then, the midnight zone, or that deep ocean, there might be no light at all. Wow. Today though, we're going to talk about animals that are mainly found in the twilight zone. So, what kind of animals live here in the twilight zone, where it's really cold and pretty dark?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, great question. So, some animals, they can't live in the twilight zone. If an animal needs to breath air, like a dolphin that so many of our friends love, that's going to be really hard for them to live in the twilight zone consistently, because they have to go up to the surface and breath. Or, if an animal eats algae, for example, that algae is going to need sunlight to grow. So, a green sea turtle, they can't really live in the deep ocean because their food isn't there. But, there are some animals that have adaptations to help them find the twilight zone to be a very lovely place to live.
Katie Derloshon:
Ah okay. So, Lara, thank you, again, for sharing some of that information with us, especially... Some of these animals that we're talking about, and the Q&A, some of our family's favorite animals, maybe they can be found in the twilight zone, maybe they... what was that? Everything okay over there? I see a light flashing through your screen. You okay, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah. Actually, everything is find over there. I am glad that you noticed me playing around with light a little bit. I was inspired by the adaptation that we're going to be talking about today, and I was using light to get your attention. So, I think that it worked.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, totally did, because I was definitely in the middle of thinking about all of our friends' favorite animals, and now I'm thinking, "I wonder if any of them have a favorite animal that also uses bioluminescence?" especially since that light was so distracting, because I didn't know what was going on from over there, I needed to pause and make sure everything was okay. You said that you were inspired by the adaptation we're going to talk about today, and you have shared what an adaptation is with us before, but can you remind us again, please?
Lara Noren:
Of course. I would love to remind you. Living things, like plants and animals, have very special traits or behaviors that allow plants and animals to survive in their habitat. So, these traits might have certain body features, develop certain behaviors, maybe they have special skills to help an animal to move, to eat, or to breath in their special environment.
Katie Derloshon:
Aha, thank you for the reminder. Now, what adaptation are we going to talk about today?
Lara Noren:
Well, Katie, today we are going to talk about bioluminescence. Before we talk about it, I am curious to know if anybody at home has heard of this term before? So, families at home, have you heard of bioluminescence? If so, what ideas or animals come to mind? Share with us in the Q&A.
Katie Derloshon:
Okay. Taylor says they have heard of bioluminescence. Also, I saw earlier in the Q&A that Taylor was saying that they are familiar with this fish called the anglerfish. I see that James and Elise are also saying anglerfish after you mentioned bioluminescence. E is saying a lanternfish. That kind of sounds like maybe what you were showing us with that light, lantern right? Because, when I first hear this word, that's what I think of. I think of, we're going to talk about this adaptation, and you're playing with light because of this adaptation. So, can you tell us a little bit more about what bioluminescence is? Because, there's a lot of jellyfish and a lot of anglerfish in the chat. So, do they have anything to do with bioluminescence?
Lara Noren:
Yeah. That was really great. Thanks, everybody, for sharing those thoughts and ideas. Many of our friends our right. Bioluminescence means that plants and animals are able to create their own light. This happens through a chemical reaction inside of these plants and animals, or through host bacteria called photobacteria. Bioluminescent animals usually produce a blue glow.
Katie Derloshon:
Whew, what a neat adaptation, to be able to produce your own light. I imagine, Lara, that this is a really helpful adaptation to have in darker parts of the ocean. But, Lara, is this adaptation unique to only animals in the twilight zone or dark parts of the ocean? Someone in the Q&A mentioned fireflies, do they also produce bioluminescence?
Lara Noren:
Yeah. That's great. There is bioluminescence everywhere all around the world, not just in the ocean. Even at the surface at the ocean, there is bioluminescent algae, maybe you guys have heard of it before, people swimming in this blue glowing water. But, there's also things on land that produce bioluminescence. So, fireflies are a great example of that, something that I loved to interact with when I was younger. Also, some types of tropical frogs even posses bioluminescence. But, animals in the ocean, especially the deep ocean, do a great job of utilizing light in a variety of ways, because it's so dark.
Katie Derloshon:
Okay, so how do living organisms, like animals, use bioluminescence, especially then in the ocean?
Lara Noren:
Yeah. They can use it in a lot of different ways. They could be using it like a lure to attract prey to come towards them. They could be using it for communication. Some animals flash light to one another as a way of signaling that they have found food, are ready to find a mate, or maybe they are in danger. Others use light to avoid getting eaten by predators. Or, they use it for camouflage to blend in with a small amount of light that reaches the twilight zone from the ocean surface.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool, wow. I didn't know that animals could use it in so many different ways. That's so neat.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, it is really cool. To start off, let's talk a little bit more about that animal that a lot of our friends brought up in the Q&A, the angler fish. So, here's a picture of an animal that uses bioluminescence. It's called the Johnson's black anglerfish. You can actually see this specimen in our museum at the Natural History Museum. So, if you guys are ever there, maybe you want to try and find it, take a look for it. This animal lives in the open ocean in the twilight zone and the deep sea, so in pretty much the middle of the water, not close to rocks, or caves, or sand. The females are usually much bigger than the males for this species, and that's pretty common for anglerfish. Many of our friends joining us yesterday might have noticed that this animal has a lure that's hanging off of its head. This lure glows, which attracts small fish right to the anglerfish. So, think of it kind of like fishing, but with bioluminescence instead of a worm.
Katie Derloshon:
That's really cool. Just hangs right off its head. Definitely a unique feature, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, definitely.
Katie Derloshon:
But, Lara, is the anglerfish the only animal that uses bioluminescence in the ocean? Others were talking about jellyfish, are there other animals that also use it?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, there are a ton of animals in the ocean that use bioluminescence. Another one that I want to tell you about is the jewel squid, but a lot of jellyfish also use bioluminescence. Here is a picture, though, of a jewel squid. These jewel squid have small pores all over their body that will flash light everywhere. They can use this flashing to say to other squid, "Hey, I found some food," or, "Hey, get away from me, I'm not really interested in hanging out right now." But, sometimes all of this flashing makes them a really easy target for giant squid, sperm whales, and swordfish.
Katie Derloshon:
Ooh, okay. So, this is a case with this animal, the jewel squid, where the bioluminescence helps the jewel squid to communicate, but also it might help another animal that wants to eat it.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, exactly. It is super dark in the ocean where they are using bioluminescence, so the light might attract others or predators. There, as I was saying earlier, are so many animals that use bioluminescence. I want to tell you about another one. This one we are going to spend a lot more time on, and this is going to inspire our art and our craft. Here are some pictures of another animal that uses bioluminescence. These were taken by one of our scientists at the museum, Dr. Karen Osborn. These animals are called gossamer worms.
So, families at home, let's look closely at one of these worms and make some observations. I want to know, what do you see, what questions do you have? Maybe tell me a little bit about the color, or what types of body parts you think you're seeing. Let us know in the Q&A.
Katie Derloshon:
Ooh, and this is a worm?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, this is a worm, which is cool.
Katie Derloshon:
I remember you saying earlier that worms in the ocean, they can come in many different forms.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
Max and Luna say that, "It looks like it has a lot of legs." Everett says it reminds them of plankton. Ooh, Iris and Juniper notice the red line, and they're wondering if it's blood? Excellent question.
Lara Noren:
That's interesting.
Katie Derloshon:
James and Elise see, "A lot of lines." Benny wants to know, "What do they use their tail for?" So, Benny, I bet, is noticing that line and is wondering, "How does it help the animal?" Romy is saying, "It seems a bit opaque," so maybe it's a little see-through or transparent.
Lara Noren:
Ooh, that's really interesting.
Katie Derloshon:
Let's see. Harry said, "It looks like a leaf." The shape kind of does.
Lara Noren:
It kind of does, yeah, I see that.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah.
Lara Noren:
That's a fun leaf.
Katie Derloshon:
Maria's also saying, "It looks like a centipede." I'm wondering if it's because it looks like it has so many legs.
Lara Noren:
Ooh, that's an interesting observation.
Katie Derloshon:
Taylor has a good question, "Where is its head?" Okay, these are excellent questions and excellent observations. Lara, can we learn about some of these features that people are noticing, as well as answer some of those questions, like, "Where is its head?"
Lara Noren:
Yeah. This animal is a worm, as we have mentioned. Worms have simple, tube-like body plans. So, think of an earthworm maybe that you guys have found before in your garden or dying on the sidewalk, or something like that. But, that doesn't mean that these animals are boring at all, even though they have these simple, tube-like bodies, especially worms in the ocean. Ocean worms have feeding tentacles, and bright colors, and jaws, and paddles called parapodia. The parapodia are what we are seeing on this gossamer worm. They use these paddles to propel through the ocean, and they're really important because gossamer worms live in the middle of the water, like the angler fish. This animal will never crawl on the bottom of the ocean floor. It will spend its entire life swimming. You might notice that they have these little finger things, it looks like, coming off of the parapodia. Those just create more surface area, which helps the worm to swim easier and faster.
Katie Derloshon:
Really cool. So, they're not legs, but they're parapodia to help them swim around.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
Cool.
Lara Noren:
Yeah. Just like big flippers, but a lot of them.
Katie Derloshon:
Okay. What about... It looks like, on the right side, I'm not sure if it's the head or what, but it looks like it has horns. What are those, and is that where the head is?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that is where the head is. Let's talk about these small horns that actually help this animal to eat. So, for starters, they aren't actually horns. They are more like suction cups that are rolled up close to the face. So, when they find prey, they unroll the suction cup and use it to hold onto their food, ensuring that their prey won't get away from them. Scientists aren't totally sure, but they think that the gossamer worms eat gelatinous, gooey comb jellies and jellyfish, so that's going to be really helpful to suction onto them to eat them. I know a couple of people mentioned in the Q&A as well, comb jellies, when they were talking about ocean animals. So, there you go, there's a comb jelly.
Katie Derloshon:
Very cool, excellent. So, scientists think that these are like suction cups to eat whatever they're hungry for, right?
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
But, how is it possible that scientists aren't sure yet what this animal eats?
Lara Noren:
There are a lot of unknowns about the gossamer worm. That is one of the reasons that I love talking about it. Scientists still are learning how it lives, what it eats, how they create bioluminescence, and even how many species there are. The ocean is full of discoveries waiting for people to learn about, and maybe some of our viewers today will grow up to answer some of these very important questions as they pursue careers.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. And, maybe even some of the questions that they're asking in the Q&A now, maybe those are still things that scientists are investigating as they're learning more about this worm.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. So, back to the gossamer worm. The other noticeable feature here are the bristles that look like antennae. They probably use these two long bristles to steer and to move around the ocean.
Katie Derloshon:
Neat. Pete in the Q&A was saying that it looked like this animal had antennae, but they're not antennae, they're bristles that maybe help it to steer around?
Lara Noren:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
That's cool. Lara, the tail. Someone noticed the tail. They noticed it was really long. And then, someone was also wondering what's up with this tail. So, Lara, what is up with this tail?
Lara Noren:
What is up with the tail? Great question. The tail is really important. A very important feature, so I'm glad somebody pointed it out, because it helps scientists determine what species it is. So, they can look at how many segments are on the tail and count them, and that's how they are able to determine which species is which. And sometimes, the smaller gossamer worm species don't even have a tail at all.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh, wow.
Lara Noren:
So, that tail is really important for scientists.
Katie Derloshon:
So, the tail is... You're right, it must be really helpful for the scientists that are studying these worms, because you're right, maybe they discover a whole new species.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, definitely.
Katie Derloshon:
Excellent. Okay, families, now that we've learned a little bit about some of these key features of the animal, let's go ahead and get started on our drawing. I'm going to flip over my camera so you can see my paper here, and so we can all follow along together. I'm going to start with my paper horizontal so I can draw this gossamer worm nice and long. Because, Lara, how big are these worms?
Lara Noren:
I've noticed a couple of people are asking that as well in the chat, Jason asked that. They can be really small, like the size of your fingernail, or they can be really long, like the size of your arm, like two feet long. So, their sizes are really different.
Katie Derloshon:
Excellent. Mine's going to be almost the size of my paper, so that's an okay size for this gossamer worm, right?
Lara Noren:
Absolutely.
Katie Derloshon:
Excellent. So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to kind of draw an outline to help us guide where we're going to put some of the parts. So, the first step is we're going to draw a long, squished football shape. So, to do that, I'm going to draw one curvy line on top, and then I'm going to flip my paper over. You don't have to flip your paper over, if you just want to draw a smiley face, or a curve like a smiley face for the other side. And then, I'm going to draw the other side of that. So, it's kind of like a football shape, but it's kind of squished.
All right, so this is going to help us to map out, especially where the parapodia are going to go. So, once you have your squished football, now we're going to draw what two of our... Or at least, I'm sure others in the Q&A noticed it to, but where I know, I think it was Iris and Juniper noticed that line going down the middle. So, to draw that line going down the middle, we're actually going to draw two lines. We're going to draw one going from one tip of our squished football, just to the side of it, down to the other side. And then, another line, and another line. So, two parallel lines going from one side of our squished football to the other, and then one more.
Lara Noren:
Oh no, Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
Uh-oh, what's up?
Lara Noren:
Mine is looking already interesting.
Katie Derloshon:
Hey, it's all good. This can be your draft, Lara. Maybe after the program you want to draw another gossamer worm.
Lara Noren:
That's true, that's a great point.
Katie Derloshon:
Or the eraser is handy, but it's all good. Keep on going, Lara.
Lara Noren:
All right.
Katie Derloshon:
Your worm's going to come out beautiful anyway, right?
Lara Noren:
Absolutely.
Katie Derloshon:
All the worms can be unique.
Lara Noren:
They're individuals.
Katie Derloshon:
Now, we have to add in the parapodia. So, parapodia, they all look kind of like these little finger-like things going down both sides of the body. So, whatever we have on one side of the body, we're going to draw on the other side too. Now, to draw the parapodia, we're going to draw a wiggle line. We're going to start at this midline line that we drew here, the line that went down our football, and we're going to go up to the top of the football, and then squiggle it back down. So, this is what it's going to look like. We're going to go up to the football, down to the midline, up to the football, down to the midline, up to the football, down to the midline, all the way down.
Lara said that it also has those two little flaps on the end of each parapodia. If you want to add those in, you can add them in. Or, you can leave them off, because I'm sure, from some views of the gossamer worm, you might not be able to always see those little flaps. I'm going to choose to leave mine off for this.
Lara Noren:
I added a couple flaps.
Katie Derloshon:
Ah-ha.
Lara Noren:
They look a little funny.
Katie Derloshon:
Hey, it's all good. So now, Lara, we have one side of our parapodia. We need to do the other side. This type of symmetry, I think you had shared there's a special name with it, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, it's called bilateral symmetry. So, it's what people have too. So, on one side of our body, the right side versus the left side, is usually symmetrical.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. So, that means we need to make these parapodia look similar on this side. So, to do that, I'm going to swap around my picture again. All right. Savannah's saying in the Q&A that, "Every artist style is a little different," just like every gossamer worm is a little different. Every human is a little different. So, it's okay if ours come out a little different, right?
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
Now, to help encourage that bilateral symmetry here within our gossamer worm, we're going to try and follow the same pattern of touching the midline and touching the football line, the same places where we did on this side. Here's what I mean by that. It's going to be mirroring it. So, it's going to come... Let's see, we're going to have it be up, and then to the midline, touching the football here and here, down to the midline. See how they touch right here at the midline close to each other? And then, they both touch the football kind of in the same spot, as close as I can get it. And then, down to the midline, up to the football, down to the midline, up to the football. All the way down. And again, it's okay if it's not perfect. We can always erase and try again. Or, maybe your gossamer worm is in motion, so they're not exactly mirroring each other. Cool.
Lara Noren:
Awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
Parapodia done. We've got parapodia on one side, parapodia on the other. So now, hopefully our gossamer worm will be able to move around in the ocean.
Lara Noren:
That's important.
Katie Derloshon:
It is important. You had said you added a couple flaps on yours.
Lara Noren:
I did, yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. You know, I might decide to add them in when we add color in, or I might decide to just keep it like this. Now, families at home, once you have your parapodia on both sides, because it's very important it's on both sides, let's go and focus on the head side of our animal. I'm going to choose to do my head of my gossamer worm on the right side. Here's how I'm going to do it. The first thing I noticed with this animal and its head is that the head is kind of made up of two triangle shapes. So, I'm going to draw one triangle on top, and then another triangle on the bottom. Because, again, that symmetry. And, as friends are saying in the Q&A, it had those long... They looked like antennae, but what were they? They were bristles, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, bristles.
Katie Derloshon:
So, one bristle coming out of one of the triangle, and another bristle coming out of the other triangle. And then, Lara, those suction cup frontal horns, right?
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
We're going to have those coming right out of where the two triangles touch. Just a little bloop, and a little bloop. And last, but not least, Lara, we need to add the tail. You had said some gossamer worms don't even have a tail, or their tail's super small.
Lara Noren:
Right.
Katie Derloshon:
So, scientists and artist choice here, how do you want to make your tail? I'm going to kind of do a medium tail. I'm going to have it coming out, and then swirling around.
Lara Noren:
I'm probably going to have a small tail on mine.
Katie Derloshon:
Excellent. Cool. Well, while families are finishing up, let's go ahead and review some of those features again that we had. The midline down the middle, we have the parapodia on both sides, we've got the bristles, we've got the frontal horns, and that tail. You can see here on the screen, this is a practice drawing I did, where I did add in some of those little flaps on the parapodia paddles.
All right, so we have learned a lot about this interesting worm, and what it looks like, and some of its body features, and some of its adaptations. But, Lara, what about bioluminescence? That is what our program is all about today. So, I imagine this worm must use it some way, so how does it?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, great question. You're right, this program is all about bioluminescence, so of course this worm has some bioluminescence going on. Gossamer worms use bioluminescence probably to avoid predators. So, here we animated the slide to show you how it would work. They push out bioluminescent pigments from those paddles, or the parapodia, and these pigments mix with mucus and produce a yellow shadow that distracts a predator and allows the gossamer worm to jet away. Think of it maybe kind of like a squid or an octopus producing ink to confuse a predator while they are able to get away quickly. Scientists aren't totally sure that this is the only use. Maybe the bioluminescence is also a form of defense. Maybe this mucus harms a predator, instead of just distracting it. That's something that our scientists are working on.
Katie Derloshon:
Whoa, so the mucus inside the parapodia mix with the bioluminescence pigment to make it shoot out this yellow stuff so it can just jet away.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, exactly.
Katie Derloshon:
That's really awesome. But, Lara, I remember at the beginning of the program, though, you said that, "Most animals are bioluminescence blue," so this one's yellow, why is that?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that's a great observation, Katie. Yellow bioluminescence is very, very rare. Blue light shows up best in the ocean, so scientists are trying to figure out why, and also how, these gossamer worms produce a yellow light instead. This might be useful for startling the predator, maybe kind of like a camera flash, it's really bright and shocking. That could allow the gossamer worm some extra time to get away. It's another mystery for our scientists.
Katie Derloshon:
Ooh, okay. Someone noticed, again in the Q&A, that red line going down the body. Does that have anything to do with bioluminescence? Does that part glow? What's up with that line?
Lara Noren:
So, that is one of the coolest things about this worm, in my opinion. That red line is its stomach, or its gut. I know someone was like, "Is that blood?" in the very beginning. No. It's its stomach and its gut. Most plants and animals in the ocean are bioluminescent. About 76%. So, that means that a lot of animals this gossamer worm eats are going to be bioluminescent. So, when the gossamer worm eats these other bioluminescent animals, they don't want to be exposed by their prey. And, since they have a transparent body, or they're pretty see-through, they use that red stomach to protect themselves from the bioluminescence of the animals that they eat. They kind of use it like a cloak.
Katie Derloshon:
Ooh, cool. So, the gossamer worm, like you said, kind of has this see-through-y transparent body that we can basically see through. But, since it most likely eats other animals that also are bioluminescent, it's evolved to have this sort of built-in blocker so that the other animals inside of its body won't be seen by others.
Lara Noren:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
That's really cool. Which, I imagine would maybe help the gossamer worm to not be seen by predators.
Lara Noren:
Yeah. I think that's a great inference.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, right? But, why red? Why not green, or blue, or yellow? Why red?
Lara Noren:
Red is really difficult to see in a low-light environment. So, when an animal is red in the deep sea, they're basically invisible. You might have noticed that a lot of deep sea animals are red. If you haven't noticed that, maybe think about it, do some Googling, "Deep sea animals." A lot of them are red. That is so they can blend in with the darkness.
Katie Derloshon:
Whoa, you're right. So, here we've taken away the light. It's really hard to see that red gut line when the lighting is low.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Katie Derloshon:
So, not only does this animal itself use bioluminescence with the mucus and the yellow to potentially distract predators and get away real quick, but its body has also adapted to block out bioluminescence from other animals it eats. Whew, this animal, the gossamer worm, is truly one uniquely adapted animal.
Lara Noren:
That's a great catchphrase.
Katie Derloshon:
You're right, it is, for this gossamer worm. Lara, what do you say we get back into our drawing and add some color and some final details to it.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, I think that sounds like a great plan.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. I'm going to swap back over to my craft cam here. Let's start actually with that red gut line. So, if you have a red marker, a red crayon, red color pencil. Or, if you don't, you can also just use a pencil and label with a line that this is red. I'm going to go ahead and draw a straight line, starting from the top, and draw it all the way down. The red gut line. Remember, to help it not expose any bioluminescent animals it might have eaten.
Lara Noren:
That looks good.
Katie Derloshon:
Thank you, thank you. Now, let's trace the parapodia. This is where you can add in, if you don't have those little flappies, maybe you want to add in some little flappies with your marker. The marker helps us to show what's going to be permanent on your drawing, because, after our drawing's done, we're going to erase any pencil that's left over. So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to start on one side, and we're just going to trace the parapodia line. So again, we're going to trace that line we already drew. So, up to football, down to midline, football, midline, football, midline. We're just going to trace it. If you want to add in those two flaps, go for it. If you want to keep it as it is without the flaps, totally cool too. Lara, what color are you tracing yours in? I chose blue.
Lara Noren:
You know, Katie, I also chose blue, because I was like, "Transparent, the ocean is blue, this seems right to me."
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, and that first picture of gossamer worms, they come in lots of different colors.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, definitely. I just want to say too that part of this process, and why I think doing these drawings and making this art is so fun, is that we're not really looking for perfection here. We just want to practice how we can understand these animals, by looking at the details and then creating designs and art from those details and that information. It's really cool how we can use art to better understand science, and how science can inform art. So, we're not looking for perfection, we're just looking for fun and learning.
Katie Derloshon:
You're right. Definitely not looking for perfection. You're right, art can be a great tool to help us also look really closely at something, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah.
Katie Derloshon:
In preparing for this program, looking at the gossamer worm so many times, really helped me see these shapes, like the triangle, and the squiggle lines. You're right, it definitely can help us to look closer at something, but no perfection.
Lara Noren:
Right.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Lara, after we have our parapodia, now let's trace the head parts, okay? So, I'm going to trace my triangles for my head. My cap just is not being my friend right now. It just keeps popping off my marker, so we're just going to keep it off. And then, trace the other one. And then, Lara, we have those frontal horns, so whoop, whoop. Those long bristles. Because, we definitely don't want to erase those. We want to keep those.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, those are important.
Katie Derloshon:
Gossamer worms definitely need - Yeah. And then, the tail.
Lara Noren:
Wow, Katie, that looks so good.
Katie Derloshon:
Thank you, Lara. The marker, I think, really helps me to see those parts even clearer. Now, all of the pencil that's left over, like my football shape, or those lines that we used to help guide making our parapodia, those can be erased. So, families at home, after the program, please feel free to erase any of the pencil lines that are left over.
But, Lara, we do need to add a title to our drawing. My favorite color is purple, so I'm going to use purple for the title. This, again, is a gossamer worm. So, at the top of my paper, I'm going to write, "Gossamer worm." These caps today. All right, cool. Now, there are other things that you might, as a family, after the program, decide to label as well. So, maybe after the program you want to label the tail, or the bristles. Especially those bristles, so you don't forget they're not antennae. Or, the frontal horns, or even the parapodia so that you remember what they're called. Or, that red gut line. As a family, after the program, feel free to continue to add more labels as you are erasing your pencil line.
Now, Lara, drawing this worm together today was really, really fun. The families can see on the screen now there is an example of a practice drawing that we did together with some labels. So, that's one way you might want to label it after the program. But, I really had fun drawing this worm with you today. But, what about inside of our Ocean Hall? Inside the museum's Sant Ocean Hall, we have a model of this [inaudible 00:40:38].
Lara Noren:
Yeah. So interesting, James and Elise just asked if we have a gossamer worm in the Natural History Museum or in Q?rius. We do, in the Ocean Hall, have a model of the gossamer worm, which you can see on your screen. If you ever come to the Natural History Museum, in Washington D.C., I challenge all of you to find it. This model is definitely one of my favorites, Katie. I think that we have time to make a quick model of this animal together, using some of the supplies from our supply list. So, this will also give us a chance to review some of its key body features, that we can share with others all about this worm and how it uses bioluminescence.
Katie Derloshon:
That sounds fun. Let's do it. Okay, so families at home, we're going to work together to make this model, highlighting again some of those features that we talked about. But, as we're doing it, please feel free to send in any remaining questions you have about the worm or bioluminescence, and as we craft we will get to some of those questions. So, shall we go for it?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, let's do it. We already have some great questions queued up, so I'm excited to answer some of them.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Well, I'm going to move my picture here, and let's go ahead and get started on the craft for a couple minutes, and then we'll jump into some of those questions. Sound good?
Lara Noren:
Sounds perfect.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So, the first thing, we need to cut some strips. The strips are going to help us to make both that red gut line, as well as to make the parapodia. So, the parapodia, I just have this piece of paper that was a regular size sheet of paper. I'm going to cut two strips longways. These are going to be for my parapodia. They're going to be about an inch, or maybe the size of your finger to the first knuckle. Not too big, but not too skinny either. So, I'm going to cut two strips, two long strips to make for my parapodia.
Lara Noren:
I forgot to grab a scissors. Do you think I can just rip it?
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, go for it. One piece of advice, if you're going to rip it, I would try and crease it first so you have kind of a guide for your rips. Fold and crease. Or, just go for it.
Lara Noren:
I got one strip.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, love it. So, we've got two strips here. Once you have your two strips. Then, you need a gut line strip. And so, my gut line strip, I found in my cardstock a piece of red, but if you don't have red, that's okay, you can use another piece of paper, color it red later, or don't even have it red, it's okay.
Lara Noren:
And also, if we are using scissors as a young learner, just make sure that you have an adult present to help you out with that scissor use.
Katie Derloshon:
Thank you, Lara, for that reminder. Yes. Okay, now for the gut line, with that sturdier piece of paper, if you have it, if not you can use regular paper, we don't need it to be as long. So, I'm just going to cut along the short length side of my paper here. About the same width that I did... Or, the same size as I did the longer strips. So, there is my strips. So, I've got two long strips, one short strip. Now, we're going to do one more step, Lara, and then we'll get into the questions, okay?
Lara Noren:
Awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
So, this first step for the crafting, after we've cut our strips, is we're going to take the two long pieces of paper and stack them on top of each other. And then, we're going to fold it back and forth. What I mean by back and forth is we're going to fold both of the pieces of paper one way, crease it, and then fold it the other way and crease it. So, it kind of gives us a zig-zaggy fold. Kind of like we had that squiggle line, we drew the squiggle line, now we're going to make a squiggle line with our paper. Perfect. We're going to do it all the way down the paper, the whole way down. And, while you're folding it, I'm going to turn it over to Lara, to see if there are a couple questions she can answer for y'all.
Lara Noren:
Yes, definitely. So, one of the questions that I wanted to answer, someone asked a little while ago, "Do any cave animals have bioluminescence?" Yeah, there are a couple of cave animals, like glowworms, for example, live in total darkness in caves, and produce bioluminescence. So, there's a lot of bioluminescence all over the world in very unique and special places.
Katie Derloshon:
Did you say glowworms is another example of a worm?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, exactly. Actually though, I feel like they might be insects. I challenge all of you to learn a little bit more about glowworms.
Katie Derloshon:
Got it.
Lara Noren:
And maybe we can all go on that learning journey together. I also noticed a question, some people were asking, "How does this animal digest food," asking a couple more questions about the food process, and also the gut line. One of the really cool things that scientists are doing with gossamer worms is if they find a sample of this gossamer worm in the ocean, they can take it back to their laboratory, and they'll look at the stomach contents of that gossamer. Which, is how we know that they might be eating comb jellies and jellyfish, because we find partially digested pieces of gelatinous goo from comb jellies and jellyfish.
That is one of the ways that scientists are trying to understand what eats gossamer worms as well. Someone was asking what a predator of a gossamer worm is. So, they can do that same process to try and understand what is eating these gossamer worms, by looking at the stomach contents of other animals.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. Interesting. Let's see, is there another question that might be... We have time, I think, for one more question before we craft on.
Lara Noren:
Okay, perfect. Hmm, which question should we do?
Katie Derloshon:
I see Santiago's wondering about the jewel squid. Lara, I know you're a big jewel squid fan, so maybe we can-
Lara Noren:
I love the jewel squid. Honestly, I just am obsessed with squid, and octopus, and any form of mollusk. Big fan. But, the jewel squid is not that big. A lot of squid in the ocean are not that big. But, then again, we have things like the giant squid, which are huge. I think that they're probably... I think I looked it up, it was like eight inches, around there. So, they stay pretty small.
Katie Derloshon:
Ooh, neat. Those are the jewel squid, those are the ones that have those bioluminescent, I guess, jewel. Maybe that's where it got the name, because it kind of flashes those lights.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, definitely. I think so.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. All right, so let's go ahead and try the next step of our craft. The next step of our craft, I'm going to show it to you, we're going to tape together, and then I'm going to give you a little bit of time, we'll come back into the questions so that you-
Lara Noren:
Okay, perfect.
Katie Derloshon:
... and your family can tape as well. The parapodia, remember we said it has to be the same on one side as the other. It's kind of like there's a mirror here, so it's reflecting it symmetrical. So, what I'm going to do is I have my two strips here still together, I'm going to take them apart. There they are. I'm going to flip one of them. So, here I've got my two strips, one flipped. The gut line is going to go right in the middle.
Now, to tape the parapodia onto the gut line, I'm just going to find a place on my gut line, I'm going to pinch it. So, I'm kind of pinching and squeezing that gut line right in the middle of the parapodia. I'm going to take some tape, and I'm going to loop the tape around, making sure to get a little bit of that red gut line though included in the tape, so that when I cut, or let go, the gut line doesn't fall out. The gut line is included in the taping process. So again, what I did is I took my parapodia, I flipped one side, I put the gut line in the middle, and I taped it down. You're going to want to do the same thing to the other side. But, this is where it's crafters choice if you want to pinch it here, if you want to pull your parapodia down a little bit to tape it a little bit further down, to change the size of your parapodia. I think I'm going to do mine about right there. So again, I've taped it so that a little bit of the red is still included in the tape. I'm going to do the same thing on this side. So, while you're taping, Lara, do we have some more questions?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, we did get some other questions come in. Someone was asking, "How small are the males of those anglerfish species?" This question was from a while ago, when we were talking about the anglerfish. But, really interestingly, a lot of male anglerfish will become parasitic when they find a female. So, I'm sure you're all thinking, "What?" Let me explain. When a female anglerfish is fully mature, a male will attach to the body of this female and basically live attached to this female for the rest of its life. So, they kind of have to partner up and become fused together. This is for a lot of different anglerfish species. So, usually the males are way smaller, because they need to have a free ride for the rest of their life, hitched to the female, so they don't want to have a giant male attached to the female. Which, is a pretty fun situation.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, that's a very unique adaptation for the anglerfish, especially for the male to just latch right on.
Lara Noren:
I know. It's fun.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So, before we jump into one more, or maybe we have time for a couple more questions, I do want to share the last few steps so that families can go ahead and finish their anglerfish as we wrap up our program. So, once you have... Not your anglerfish, your gossamer worm. Once you have your parapodia taped, it's time to trim the gut line, because you see it's hanging out here. We don't need it that long. One of them I'm going to trim not all the way to the white, because, again, I don't want to cut off all the tape. I'm going to cut it really, really close to the white, though, so that it still stays attached. If you can see that. Then, the other one, I'm actually going to keep it a little long, and that's because I'm going to use this extra leftover part for my frontal horns.
Here's how I'm going to do the frontal horns. I am going to trim it a little bit, but I'm still going to keep quite a little bit of red. It's about the width of my finger. So, what I'm going to do here, is I'm going to cut down my red, the whole red, and I'm going to fold one towards me, and one away from me. So, here are my frontal horns, or those suction-y cuppy face parts, I'm not sure, of the gossamer worm.
Now, you know that it has those long bristles that we need to attach as well, so to do the long bristles I'm going to get my paper again, and I'm going to, this time, do skinny, skinny pieces. They can be as long as you want. We'll need two bristles. I'm going to eventually tape those bristles, one onto each side of the head. And then, we can't forget the tail, if you choose, in your crafting ways today, to have it have a tail. I have a piece of cut yarn here that I'm going to, while Lara's answering the last... I think we have time maybe for one more question, I'm going to attach this, using tape, to the back side of my gossamer worm. And then, you will have your model of a gossamer worm. You can help it to wiggle around in your space.
Lara Noren:
Ooh, Katie, that looks so cool. I love the model. I think that's a really fun way to continue learning about this animal. And, yes, I think we do have time for one more question. So, as you're attaching that, let's do a little recap on the red gut line. So, Colin was asking, "Why is it not black? Why is it red?" And remember, this is really a key feature of a lot of deep ocean animals. They use this red color as a way of cloaking into the dark ocean. It is an adaptation of red that we see a lot in the twilight zone and in the deep ocean, because red is really hard to see in dark.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. And, as we saw when we took away the light on this slide too, right, I didn't realize that until we saw it that way. That's so cool. So, here on my craft cam I have my completed gossamer worm. I think its tail's a little too long, so I am going to trim its tail a little bit. There we go. And, you can see on the PowerPoint too, that there's also a picture of the completed picture with labels, as well as a model that we just created together today.
Lara Noren:
Awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
It was so much fun learning all about bioluminescent animals with you, Lara, today, and with all of you at home.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, it was. We learned that animals are bioluminescent for many different reasons. Some animals use it for protection, some use it to lure in prey, some might use it to attract a potential mate. And, we also took a close look at one animal that uses bioluminescence, the gossamer worm. We created a drawing and a 3D model of this animal to help show what we have learned and how you could use those to teach others about this worm and about bioluminescence.
Katie Derloshon:
Yes. But, families, the fun and creating with these animals, the gossamer worm, doesn't have to stop now that we're done with our program. Because, if you remember, the gossamer worm used bioluminescence via squirting out yellow from its paddles and its parapodia. Now, we didn't highlight that on our model here, but rather we just used the model to help us visualize those parts maybe in a 3D, or even perhaps how the animal moves in the ocean. So, we want to know from you, how will you share with others, maybe using your model, that this is where the bioluminescence comes out of, that it comes out of these parapodias? Maybe you'll color some yellow on your animal, or maybe you'll show it a different way.
But also, another important element is to remember the habitat where this animal lived. So, maybe you want to create a representation of this habitat for your fine little gossamer worm model. And, if you leave your drawings and your model the way they are now, that's totally fine too. So, Lara, what about you? What do you think you might do to complete your artworks today?
Lara Noren:
Well, I think I should add some bioluminescence, because that is what we've been talking about all day today. So, I'll probably add some yellow onto my drawing, to show where that mucus is.
Katie Derloshon:
I definitely think I'm going to add some as well. Some yellow onto my worm here, so that I can remember that's what is does. And, we would love to see what you and your family create together. We would love it if you would share it with us. So, if you want to share what you have created, please email us using our Family Programs email. And, if you would like for them to maybe potentially be shared with other families at future program, like this one, there will be a return release that we ask that you sign and return. I'll email that out to you after this program, or in a couple days, once we have the post-program email ready to go. So, Lara, thank you again, though, for joining us today to share all about bioluminescence in the twilight zone, and the gossamer worm. It was totally a lot of fun and super interesting to learn about the different ways bioluminescence can be used, and a lot of fun creating art alongside you today too.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, thank you for inviting me, Katie. And, families at home, thank you for joining us. I hope that you had fun.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah. Families, thank you as well for joining us, like Lara said, today. As we're wrapping up our program, we did want to share with you that we are going to take a few months off here. We're going to take the month of January and February off from our online family programing, to review all of the work we've been doing virtually over the last about 20 months. So, to help us review, we would like to ask that you fill out the short survey after today's program. You can take a few minutes to complete it by using the link that will be in the browser after the webinar ends, and it will be in the post-program email that I email you later this week. So, we're excited to hear your feedback so we can continue to bring meaningful family programing to you and your family when we return later on in 2022.
But, we will have one last family program next Sunday, is our last 2021 program. Next Sunday, I will join my fellow museum educator [inaudible 01:00:05], to share all about what I just learned from Lara about bioluminescence and the gossamer worm, for our bilingual family program, Historia Natural en Casa. So, thank you all again. Thank you, Lara. Thank you, Brittney. And, thank you to all of you families at home so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing you online in the future. Have a happy New Year, and see you all in 2022. Bye.
Lara Noren:
Bye-bye.
