At a depth of more than five and a half kilometers, there is no sunlight. The pressure here is many hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure, the water temperature is close to freezing, and food arrives in the form of rare particles drifting down from the upper layers of the ocean.
An Encounter on the Abyssal Plain
The unusual footage was obtained during an expedition NA182 — Deep-Sea Habitats of the Hawaiian Archipelago, conducted by the Ocean Exploration Trust with support from NOAA Ocean Exploration.
The twenty-day expedition runs from 22 September to 12 October 2026 aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus. Remotely operated vehicles are exploring the little-studied underwater ridges, seamounts, and abyssal plains in the region of the Hawaiian Archipelago.
During one of the dives, south of the Hawaiian Islands and east of Johnston Atoll, the vehicle discovered a squidworm at a depth of more than 5600 meters — about 18 300 feet.
Not a squid, and not quite a familiar worm
Despite its name, the squidworm does not belong to the cephalopods. It is a polychaete annelid worm, a distant relative of many marine organisms that live on the seafloor.
The name Teuthidodrilus is formed from the Greek words meaning “squid” and “worm.” The species epithet samae was given in honor of the Sama people, who live in the region of the Sulu Archipelago, where this animal was first studied.
The squidworm was discovered in 2007 in the Celebes Sea between Indonesia and the Philippines, and was scientifically described in a paper by Karen Osborn, Lawrence Madin, and Greg Rouse, published in Biology Letters.
The specimens studied reached approximately nine centimeters in length. They are distinguished by ten long anterior appendages and numerous lateral structures that help them swim in the water column.
It is precisely these broad, bristled “oars” that create the extraordinary iridescent glow in the video. This is not necessarily the animal’s own light: the rainbow effect arises when the vehicle’s directed beam is reflected and refracted by the fine structures of its body.
The squidworm seems to show us that a sunbeam is sometimes not needed for color to arise. Light, form, and the point where they meet are enough.
Life between the seafloor and the water column
Most of the squidworm’s close relatives are associated with the seafloor. But Teuthidodrilus samae has adapted to swimming and spends its time in the water not far above the bottom.
For biologists, such animals are especially interesting. They allow us to see how evolution transforms an already existing body plan, opening up a different way of moving and living.
What in a bottom-dwelling worm might have served for moving over a surface has, in its swimming relative, turned into a system of broad rowing elements. The body was not created anew — its possibilities unfolded and came together in a new configuration.
Initial observations suggested that squidworms collect with their long appendages marine snow — particles of organic matter slowly falling from above. The new footage broadens the picture: perhaps their diet is not limited to suspended matter and includes larger remains of animals.
But confirming this will require more observations. A single encounter demonstrates the possibility of a behavior, not the full diet of the species.
A Feast That Keeps Life Going
In the upper layers of the ocean, energy comes from the Sun. In the abyssal depths, its path is considerably longer.
The remains of plankton, particles of algae, fragments of bodies and products of vital activity slowly sink downward. To the surface this may look like an ending, but for the depths it becomes a delivery of energy.
Some organisms decompose organic matter, others eat its particles, and still others feed on those organisms themselves. In this way substances re-enter living bodies, pass through food chains and continue their movement through the ecosystem.
Polychaete worms play an important role in this cycle. They take part in the processing of organic matter and return the substances it contains to the exchange between organisms and the environment.
That is why the strange repast of the squidworm is not a secondary episode. It is a small scene in an enormous process, thanks to which the abyss remains alive.
