During a 2005 scientific cruise in Storfjord in Møre, Norway, a previously undescribed co-occurrence between the wood boring bivalve Xylophaga dorsalis and the pogonophoran annelid (Sibglinidae) Sclerolinum brattstromi was discovered. The pogonophoran was lining burrows made by the bivalve, and surrounded it in a glomerulus-like structure. Based on observations, we hypothesize that the deep burrows of X. doralis produce an environment favourable to S. brattstromi. Interestingly, both bivalve and annelid are dependent upon symbiotic microorganisms, and thus raising the possibility that the relationship between these species is driven by their bacterial symbionts, or their utilization of the common redox boundary.
