Did you now there are some worms that can live in ice? Ice worms can be found living in ice in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. These dark brown or black relics of the last ice age grow to about 2cm in length and wiggle to the surface of glaciers in the morning and evening to feed on pink snow algae.
Closely related to earthworms and leeches, these cold-loving creatures are the only annelids that spend their entire lives in glacial ice, travelling up to 3m per hour on crampon-like bristles. It is not yet known whether they tunnel inside glaciers by discharging some kind of chemical, or by squeezing through microscopic fissures.
Ice worms require chilly temperatures of around 0 ̊C to survive. Special antifreeze proteins prevent them from becoming ‘wormsicles’, and they are able to overwinter deep inside snow-insulated glaciers. If exposed to the balmy warmth of 4.4 ̊C, their membranes dissolve and they will melt into goo.
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Main image: Ice worm © Southwick3, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons