New 'Spider-Man' Worm
8 Apr 2017
This worm snail's slime-ejecting tentacles have won it comparisons to the web-slinger, but the species seems to be more villain than superhero in the Florida Keys.
A multi-colored toothy animal with a powerful tongue and the ability to shoot large webs has just been discovered living on the shipwreck USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, which served as a transport ship during World War II.
When Rüdiger Bieler of the Field Museum and his colleagues first set eyes on the animal, which they determined to be a new species of vermetid, or marine worm-snail, they were reminded of a fictional superhero: Spider-Man.