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In one of them, which he nicknamed “The Wipe,” a shipworm bungled its attempt to penetrate another shipworm, leaving its sperm slicked on the side of its would-be mate’s incurrent siphon, which a third shipworm quickly and delicately wiped away.

Each shipworm has an incurrent siphon, which takes in water, and an excurrent siphon, which expels waste.

In certain knots, the excurrent siphons of different shipworms appeared to be wrestling with each other in competition, pulling incurrent siphons away from groping the excurrent ones.

These zooids have an incurrent and excurrent siphon and use cilia to pump water for feeding, respiration and movement. Using a mucus net, they filter water for small planktonic microorganisms.

Females of the Teredo variety actually bring sperm in — trigger alert: The following part of this sentence is rated PG-13 — “through their incurrent siphon, and fertilize and brood their young inside their body” to be released later, Adams says.