Since March 24th Tokyo Sea Life Park has been exhibiting creatures that staff collected in Antarctica in February of this year (2016). One of these creatures is the "ribbon worm." As the name suggests, it is long and slender like a string and belongs to the phylum Nemertea.
Most ribbon worms live in the sea and reside on the seabed. The species we have recently revealed is scientifically known as Parborlasia corrugatus, which can be read as "Parborlasia corrugatus" in Japanese. It is commonly found in the shallow waters along the coast of the Antarctic Ocean. Its body is soft and flexible, and when stretched, it can reach a length of about 1 meter. When it finds food on the seabed, it swallows it with a slit-like mouth at the end of its body.
I tried feeding this ribbon worm a horse Japanese Jack Mackerel. Watch the video to see it swallow it whole, headfirst. It stretches and contracts its long, rubbery tube-like body as it devours Japanese Jack Mackerel.
The video on the left is at normal speed, and the video on the right is at 10x speed. If you watch it carefully at normal speed, you can clearly see the fish shaking its head as if searching for Japanese Jack Mackerel, and how Japanese Jack Mackerel 's tail fin is slowly swallowed.
*Please be aware that this video contains images of long, slender creatures, and may not be suitable for viewers who are squeamish about such things.
