These brilliant red “feathers” are actually animals called tube worms. They live in an extreme environment on the deep ocean floor, thousands of meters below the water’s surface. Their world is always very cold and completely dark. Without sunlight, photosynthesis is not possible. So what do organisms eat at these depths? Tube worms depend on chemosynthetic microorganisms that live inside them for food. God made it so tube worms can live in such extreme conditions.
Most environments are not as extreme as the deep ocean where tube worms live, but no matter what the conditions, God created every living organism to function perfectly in its environment. In this chapter, you will read about a wide variety of environments and the organisms that live in them.
Chaper Outline
Opening image courtesy of Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation.http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/sfs/popup/life_vc_tubeworms.htm. Public Domain.
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Changes/edits were made to the original ck12 biology text by Guest Hollow. Changes are not endorsed by ck12 in any way.
