The long-lost worm is Haplosyllis anthogorgicola, a species of bristle worm, or polychaete. But as Forreau was sorting her underwater photos of seahorses and corals, she made another unexpected discovery: The worms’ coral burrows were visible in the images. Perhaps, she thought, that might also be the case in other photos of pygmy seahorses. Images of pygmy seahorses taken by scuba divers were crawling with worm photobombs. Worms’ limbs, heads and tails poked out of coral burrows in the hundreds; the scientists even counted seven examples of worms crawling on seahorses’ bodies.

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Persons: Huzio Utinomo, Chloé Fourreau, “, ”, Karen Osborn, Osborn, Ai Takahata, ” Forreau, coauthors, Chloé, Forreau, ” Osborn, Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, Kyoto University, Royal Society, Biological Sciences, University of, Smithsonian National Museum of, Royal Society B, Scientific Locations: Japan, Australia, Okinawa, Washington ,, Sukumo, Kochi, Worms, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Taiwan