Lamellibrachia luymesi provides the bacteria with hydrogen sulfide and oxygen by taking them up from the environment and binding them to a specialized hemoglobin molecule.

Unlike the tube worms Riftia pachyptila that live at hydrothermal vents, L. luymesi uses a posterior extension of its body called the root to take up hydrogen sulfide from the seep sediments.

It also needs to ensure that no build up of the sulfate and hydrogen ion waste products occurs, which would inhibit the bacterial activity.

Laboratory experiments have shown that although some of the waste products diffuse into the water column, about 85% of the sulfate produced and about 67% of the hydrogen ions are eliminated across the roots.

Living in these aggregations are over 100 different species of animals, including brachiopods, molluscs, sponges, arthropoda, and chordates, many of which are found only at these seeps.

[5] In L. luymesi, the gonad occupies the anterior two-thirds of the trunk, featuring paired gonocoels housing ovaries running parallel and dorsal to the oviducts.