August 28, 2025
2 Min read
This high seas worm creates a toxic yellow pigment found in Rembrandt and Cézanne paintings
A worm on the high seas that lives in hydrothermal vents is the first known animal to create an orpiment, a toxic mineral and containing arsenic which has been used by artists for centuries
Paralvinella Hessleri Accumulates microscopic particles of arsenic on its outer skin, which reacts with sulfide to form microscopic armor of yellow orpiment.
A brilliant yellow worm that lives in deep hydrothermal vents is the first known animal to create an orpiment, a brilliant but toxic mineral used by artists from Antiquity to the 19th century. The results were published in Biology PLOS this week.
The worm (Paralvinella Hessleri) is the only creature to live in the hottest part of hydrothermal vents on the high seas in the hollow of Okinawa in the Western Pacific Ocean. Hot water and rich in minerals that draw from the seabed contains high levels of toxic sulphide and arsenic.
The researchers discovered that the verge accumulates microscopic particles of arsenic on its external skin cells as well as along its internal organs. This reacts with sulfide of the hydrothermal vent to form small tufts of orpiment, shaping microscopic armor around the worm which protects it from the toxic environment.
On the support of scientific journalism
If you appreciate this article, plan to support our award -winning journalism by subscription. By buying a subscription, you help to ensure the future of striking stories about discoveries and ideas that shape our world today.
Orpiment is a mineral of natural arsenic sulfide, often found in hydrothermal and magmatic ore deposits.
The results surprised the research group. In the deep sea, creatures live in total darkness and are generally gray whites or adorned in shades of dark red orange, explains the co-author Hao Wang, biologist on the high seas at the Chinese Academy of Qingdao Sciences. This “has no sense to make pigments in total darkness,” says Wang.
Unknown mechanism
The team has not yet discovered how arsenic is transported in the internal organs of the creature.
Other creatures on the high seas are known to produce minerals such as protective armor. The scoodful foot snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum) For example, hosting bacteria that detoxifies sulfide through extracellular biomineralization of iron sulfides at its scales, explains Narissa Bax, marine scientist at Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk.
“”Paralvinella Hessleri Can intentionally combine toxins in a single crystalline mineral “sure” in its own cells, “she says. It is the ability to fight against poison with poison in this way is remarkable, she adds.
But additional research to confirm how it happens will be difficult, due to extreme conditions in the high seas fans and difficulties in studying these species outside their natural environment, she says. Culture of P. Hessler in the laboratory is currently not possible.
This article is reproduced with permission and was first publication August 28, 2025.
It’s time to defend science
If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. American scientist has been a defender of science and industry for 180 years, and at the moment can be the most critical moment of this two -centuries story.
I was a American scientist The subscriber since the age of 12, and that helped shape my way of looking at the world. Let me know Educates me and always delights me, and inspires a feeling of fear for our vast and magnificent universe. I hope that does this for you too.
If you subscribe to American scientistYou help make sure that our cover is focused on significant research and discoveries; that we have the resources necessary to report the decisions that threaten laboratories in the United States; And that we support the budding scientists who work at a time when the value of science itself does not become often again.
In return, you get essential news, Captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, Maybe not miss newsletters, videos to watch, Difficult games and the best writings and reports in the scientific world. You can even Give someone a subscription.
There has never been more time for us to get up and show why science counts. I hope you will support us in this mission.
