Christmas tree worms have eyes that breathe, gills that see

Improvised eyes help the marine invertebrates sense danger

Christmas tree worms

GOOGLY EYES  These technicolor trees aren’t plants. They’re the gills of Christmas tree worms, which hide below in tubes within the coral.

Nick Hobgood/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Christmas tree worms have eyes “in a really silly place,” says Michael Bok.