Fun with Science Club®


			Are mussels living in different parts of the ocean related? Carrie Straight 06.01.01 On the ocean floor there live small mussels. These mussels live near hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Vents and seeps are unique compared to surrounding areas because of different chemicals that come out of the vents and seeps. Scientists wondered how long these mussels inhabited the areas around the seeps and vents. Bacteria decompose materials on whalebones and sunken woody material producing hydrogen sulphide, which makes the area around the skeleton and wood like a hydrothermal vent, because the vents emit hydrogen sulphide too. One mussel, Idas washingtonia, lives on whalebones and sunken wood. Idas washingtonia was the most common species of mussel found on 4 whale skeletons. The community of invertebrate animals on these skeletons survived by using compounds in the water and carbon. This mussel has a symbiont that lives in its gills. These symbionts help the mussels live by taking compounds in the water and changing them into nutrients. Using DNA testing, these scientists found out how closely related mussels that live near vents and seeps were to Idas washingtonia. They found out that vent-living, seep-living, bone-living, and wood-living mussels are closely related. Since scientists found mussel fossils on woody material earlier than on hydrothermal vents, they predict that wood and bones might have been a stepping stone for these mussels in colonizing the vents.


			Distel, Daniel L., Amy R. Baco, Ellie Chuang, Wendy Morrill, Colleen Cavanaugh, and Craig R. Smith. 2000. Do mussels take wooden steps to deep-sea vents? Nature 403: 725-726.