Worms (with feet?) on Whidbey Island

Feb 23, 2018 • 12:09 PM UTC

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MaxCoyle

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Last weekend, I went back to see family in the Pacific Northwest, and celebrated my older sister’s birthday and upcoming wedding on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound.

At low tide, I took a walk with my mom (burgeoning Foldscope enthusiast) along the beach and collected water from tide pools to examine.
We kept seeing many worm-like creatures, and using PVC cutouts to create mini-aquariums, we were able to image their live behavior under the Foldscope.
Most interesting to me was a segmented worm that seemed to be using some kind of foot near it’s mouth to propel itself:

worm head with antennae and leg/feeding appendage on left side It is possible this is just a feeding appendage but its extension and contraction seemed to be propelling the organism forward. In the video below, I’ve summarized the results from three independently collected samples, with annotations and contemplative piano music that are hopefully more useful than distracting. Please let me know what you think and if you can identify this creature!