The Worms That Eat Whale Bones
On the skeleton of a dead whale three kilometres down, scientists found a carpet of red, feathery worms with no mouths and no guts, eating the bones.
What was reported
In 2002, scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, exploring the deep sea with a robot submarine, found the skeleton of a grey whale lying nearly 3,000 metres down in Monterey Canyon. Its bones were covered with small, red, plume-like worms waving in the water.
The worms, named Osedax, 'bone-devourer', have no mouth, no stomach and no gut. They bore into bones with root-like growths and feed with the help of bacteria. Strangest of all, the worms first found were all female, with tiny males living inside them.
Explanations offered
Osedax worms are a real group of animals, now found on bones around the world's oceans. When a whale dies and sinks, its body supports a whole community of life for decades, a 'whale fall'. Some Osedax have been found on fossil bones millions of years old.
- When
- Discovered in 2002
- Where
- Monterey Canyon, off California, USA
- Witnesses
- Scientists using an underwater robot
- Status
- Confirmed
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