Roman Fedortsov has gained quite a reputation in recent years on social media. This Russian fisherman has made a habit of regularly posting pictures of creatures from the depths. Stranger specimens, each more mysterious than the last, that never fail to surprise internet users.
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Recently, he posted a video featuring a marine worm that may send shivers down your spine. "Sometimes I find this type of creature in the net," he writes. "If that creature could scream, it would make a noise like this," he says, adding a sharp cry to the images of the worm writhing on his rubber glove, revealing a pair of black, sharp hooks in it's hole of a mouth.
Many of the shots presented by Fedortsov feature what is called a barotrauma. If raised too quickly from the depths to the surface, they undergo a pressure difference so great that their eyes expand and their organs come out through their mouths. This little worm, on the other hand, seems to have survived the trip.
The "rag worm"
The creature probably belongs to the family Nereididae, also known as "rags" (ragworms) in English. Relatively well known to fishermen, they are sometimes used as bait for angling. But they're very diverse in appearance, with more than 500 species in more than 40 genera currently listed.
Be that as it may, this video once again proves that when it comes to producing extraterrestrial-looking creatures, nature seems to display boundless creativity.
