Common Shipworm

<em>Teredo navalis</em>, the common shipworm, is a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Teredinidae, order Myida, with a cosmopolitan distribution in coastal and estuarine waters worldwide. Despite the name "shipworm," this species is a bivalve — not a worm — that bores into submerged wood including ship hulls, wharves, pilings, and driftwood, using a pair of small rasping shell valves to excavate tunnels. <em>Teredo navalis</em> has a greatly elongated, worm-like body that fills the tunnel it creates, with only small siphons extending to the surface for feeding and respiration. It filters plankton from the water while also digesting cellulose from the wood it bores, aided by symbiotic bacteria. This species has been a historically significant threat to wooden maritime infrastructure across all ocean basins. Its IUCN status is Not Evaluated. Biological traits for this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature, including precise data on average lifespan, body dimensions at maturity, weight, and the relative contributions of filter feeding versus wood digestion to its overall nutrition.