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Hidden beneath its tusk-like shell is a jet-black, slippery and slimy sea creature that looks like it came off the set of。 Alien。. 。

Scientists said on Monday that they've discovered the first living specimen of a giant shipworm in a Philippine bay.。

People have known of the huge mollusc for hundreds of years, by the shells they've left behind that were the size of baseball bats. But scientists have only seen dead specimens.。

"To me, [finding the giant shipworm] is almost like finding a dinosaur -- something that was pretty much only known by fossils," Dan Distel, research professor at Northeastern University, told the Guardian.。

The discovery is akin to finding the "unicorn" of mollusks.。 Distel and his team published the find on Monday in the。Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 。

. The discovery, they said, is akin to finding the "unicorn" of mollusks. 。

Via Giphy。 Via Giphy 。Haygood told。

Popular Science 。

She said it was nearly as heavy as a branch. A fully-grown shipworm can reach up to a metre (3.3 ft) long.
 。 She said it was nearly as heavy as a branch. A fully-grown shipworm can reach up to a metre (3.3 ft) long. 。 Via Giphy。

Unlike its shipworm cousins, which burrow into rotting wood, this giant shipworm, K. polythalamia 。

lives on hydrogen sulfide, that which gives eggy farts their potent kick. 。

rarely eats anything else -- its digestive system is stunted, and scientists have found little to no fecal matter in its body.。

Hydrogen sulfide -- released from decaying vegetation and rotting animals in the swamps where it lives -- is digested by symbiotic bacteria that lives in the giant shipworm's outsize gills. The bacteria then produces carbon compounds the giant shipworm consumes.。 Via Giphy。There are still many questions about the giant shipworm -- for instance, scientists have yet to discover its life cycle, and how to measure its age.。

"Are the specimens we studied a couple years old, or a couple hundred?

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