- [Male News Anchor] Lorena Bobbitt.

- [Female News Anchor] Lorena Bobbitt.

- [Male News Anchor] Lorena Bobbitt.

- Took a knife.

- [News Announcer] Cut off her husband's penis.

- [Narrator] But what does Lorena Bobbitt

have to do with this thing?

(bubbling)

(gentle music)

Let's take a step back.

This is the Bobbit worm.

It's a species of Eunice, Euna--

- [Man] Eunice.

- [Narrator] Thanks, Terry.

- [Terry] You're most welcome.

- [Narrator] That's Dr. Terry Gosliner.

- [Terry] T-E-R-R-Y, G-O-S--

- [Man] He's a senior curator at

the California Academy of Sciences.

- [Terry] And I do research on coral reefs

around the world.

- [Narrator] He's the one who gave the Bobbit worm

its name.

They go way back.

- [Terry] In 1992, I went to the Philippines,

and I saw my first Bobbit worm.

To actually see it in action was really

one of the most amazing things I've seen.

(lively music)

- [Narrator] This thing has nope, nope, nope

written all over it.

- [Terry] I'm sorry, what?

- [Narrator] From it's spiked glowing exoskeleton.

- [Terry] And the body is very iridescent, shiny.

- [Narrator] To its spring-loaded jaws.

- [Terry] They just spring shut, like a bear trap.

- [Narrator] And its unique predatory style.

- [Terry] When it sees a fish, it pops more and more

out of the water, and then grabs the fish

and takes it back into the sand.

(people gasp)

- [Woman] What?

- [Narrator] Anyway, after years of research

in the Indo-Pacific, Dr. Gosliner published this book.

- [Terry] Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific.

- [Narrator] When it came time to name the worm,

Dr. Gosliner found an unlikely source of inspiration.

- [Terry] There was this guy named John Wayne Bobbitt,

who had cheated on his wife, and while he was sleeping

one night, she cut off his penis and threw it

in a field nearby.

- [Narrator] Wait, what?

And the worm?

- [Terry] Basically the ability to use his massive jaws

to cut the spinal cord of a fish was something that

reminded me of what Lorena Bobbitt did to her husband.

- [Narrator] So there you have it.

Something else to keep you up at night.

- [Terry] I've never had nightmares about it.

- [Narrator] Yeah, whatever, Dr. Terry.