Aftera dead whalefalls to the bottom of the ocean , one thousand of maritime organisms will carve out a dwelling house in its carcass . Among these corpse squatters are the Osedax , a genus of marine louse that bores into whale ’ clappers and provender on the delicious cetaceous fatty tissue inside .
https://gizmodo.com/what-happens-to-a-whale-after-it-dies-as-told-by-puppe-5850150
The physiology of these Osedax “ zombie ” worm is marvelously sick — the mouthless , stomachless worm jab a cavity in the bones and insert themselves like flyspeck wicked blades of grass . And even though the Osedax genus wasfirst discovered in 2002 , British researcher have now harnessed scanning technology to discover evidence of these ivory - eating worms on a 3 - million - year - old whale dodo .
The researchers discovered these canal on a fossil that was disinter in 1875 . excuse Marine biologist Nicolas Higgs of theUniversity of Leedsand London ’s Natural History Museum :
The team study borings in a 3 - million - year - old whale pearl fogy from the Mediterranean in Italy , which they conceive may have been made by Osedax insect . They used the Museum ’s micro CT ( Computed Tomography ) scanner , which can reveal incredible contingent and accuracy , in 3D , without damaging a specimen .
They compared the borings with those made by living Osedax louse and other animals such as bivalve and other marine worms . [ … ] Higgs explains the research , ‘ At first I was sceptical , but the more I investigate the borings the more confident I became that these boring were due to Osedax , so it was a deadening build up of excitement .
When copulate with a anterior discovery ofOsedax on 30 - million - yr - quondam Pacific fossil , this new find further suggest that these zombi worm have been dissolving the marine fossil record for a good long while :
‘ Our results evidence us that Osedax worm were very widespread throughout the earth ’s sea in the past and so may have had a pregnant negative result on the world fossil platter of whales , since they were destroying the bones , ’ says Higgs .
Also , Osedax worm are n’t found in the Mediterranean now , so the Osedax ’s maritime habitats could ’ve been even more far-flung centuries ago . Sure , Osedax was likely chowing down on museum - worthy whale bones for millennium , but it ’s also middling nifty to discover grounds of some foul little invertebrate that do n’t fossilize in particular well .
[ Historical BiologyviaThe Natural History Museum ]
Marine biologyPaleontologySciencewhales
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