| hemically reduced compounds (sulfides and methane), which are associated with the natural seepage of hydrocarbons of the Gulf of Mexico on the continental slope south of Louisiana and Texas, support chemosynthetic symbioses among a taxonomically diverse array of metazoans and their bacterial endosymbionts. The fine-scale dispersion patterns of clams, tube worms, and mussels were examined by means of video and emulsion photographs that were taken from camera sleds or manned submarines. Clams of the Vesicomyidae (Calyptogena ponderosa and Vesicomya cordata) occur with the foot and anterior end of the valves thrust into a layer of soft, anoxic sediment while the posterior and siphon are angled up into the oxic water column. Movement in this position produces curvilinear trails up to... |
