Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Living giant shipworm found for the first time in Philippines

Scientists have found live specimens of the rare giant shipworm for the first time, in the Philippines. Low-calorie eggs for the sea turtle on a diet after piling on the pounds

The shipworm is part of the bivalve family, in the same group as mussels and clams, and spends its life encased in a hard shell, feeding on mud. In fact, the existence of these worms was known for years, but no live specimen has ever been studied until now. The shipworm is a not actually a worm at all, but a bivalve - like mussels and clams - and has its own brittle, tusk-like shell. The discovery of the giant shipworm, a species never before studied, marked the first time scientists had live specimens in hand, according to an article published this week in American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The giant shipworm, Kuphus polythalamia, a rare, giant, worm-like clam, is finally discovered in a shallow bay in Mindanao by a team of scientists from the US and the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – It's a scientific legend that became real, and for the squeamish, the stuff nightmares are made of – the discovery of a giant shipworm the size of a baseball bat. The existence of the animal was first recorded in the 18th century through their long, tusk-like shells 3- to 5-feet long, but it has never been seen alive, according to lead investigator Daniel Distel, a research professor and director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center at Northeastern University. RELATED: At a San Antonio Popeyes, woman got a side of screwworms with her chicken

(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS))



Shipworms are usually smaller animals that live on rotting wood, but the giant shipworm can measure up to 5-feet long by 2.5-inches wide and feeds on marine sediment.
Scientists announce, through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, that live specimens of the rare Kuphus polythalamia (giant shipworm) have been discovered for the first time in the Philippines.