Hawaiian+acorn+worms

**Scientific Name:** // Balanoglossus carnosus // **Class:** Enteropneusta
 * Common Name: ﻿Acorn Worm **
 * Phylum: ﻿Hemichordata **

**Location:** Acorn worms live along the seashore and in water to depths of more than 3,200 m (10,500 feet). Most live in U-shaped burrows, but some deepwater species swim freely over the bottom.

**Life Cycle: It lives its whole life in the dirt.**

**Size:** From 1 to 39 in (1 to 100 cm ).

**Habitat:** An acorn worm appears as a bright orange or red acorn sticking out of the surface of muddy or sandy shores. When carefully dug out, a fragile earthworm like animal is revealed. **Living Requirements:** While the acorn worm moves around mud and sand is forced into its mouth. Water is filtered out through the gill slits and solid materials are passed down where any organic matter is digested. Undigested sand is bound in mucus and ejected. > ** Zookeeper's Sources: ** > ** [] ** > ** [] ** > ** [] **
 * Facts :) **
 * On the surface acorn worms look a lot like earthworms, but the internal structure of their body sets them apart.
 * The acorn worm was first discovered by a Neapolitan fisherman who found fragments of the strange animal in his net and took them to a zoologist in Naples.
 * The acorn part of this animal is the proboscis, which is attached to the body by a stalk.