Embryology of vestimentiferan tube worms from deep-sea methane/sulfide seeps

Hydrothermal vents are ephemeral and spatially patchy, raising questions about how vestimentiferan populations are established and maintained, and how symbionts are transmitted. Although post-settling juveniles have been described, embryos and larvae have been neither collected nor cultured. Here we describe the early development of vestimentiferans from cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico, and discuss the implications of our findings for dispersal potential and phylogeny.