This morning fishermen were digging sea worms on the beach of De Panne. Their hands were colored orange when gripping the sea pier. The corridors were also colored orange. Where does that dye come from? I was thinking about hemoglobin from the sea piercer.
Answer
These are two different phenomena.
The corridors of the sea pier (and for that matter the corridors of the other tube-building worms), are orange because they are rusting. There is iron in the soil, and because fresh oxygen-rich water is constantly flowing into the corridors, that iron will oxidize, rust, and thus turn orange.
The lugworm itself is also orange inside, and that is indeed the hemoglobin, the lugworm’s oxygen carrier.
Answered by
lic. Sigrid Maebe
Science communicator with expertise in agriculture and marine biology
http://ikhebeenquest.be/help.jsp
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