All articles tagged with #osedax
When a whale carcass sinks to the deep ocean, it becomes a long-lasting, multi-stage feast: initial scavengers strip flesh, bone‑eating worms (Osedax) and bone‑eating snot‑flowers bore into bone, and later sulphur‑loving chemoautotrophs sustain a thriving community for decades, turning a single whale into a whole new ecosystem and aiding the dispersal of specialized deep‑sea life.
Scientists using the NEPTUNE observatory monitored Barkley Canyon for nearly 10 years and found an unexpected absence of decay activity around whale bones and wood, lacking typical scavengers and bone-eating organisms. The results suggest ocean deoxygenation and expanding oxygen minimum zones are suppressing the deep-sea recyclers (Osedax, Xylophaga), potentially slowing organic decomposition and nutrient cycling with ripple effects on the broader food web.
A decade-long study at Barkley Canyon, BC, found no Osedax zombie worms on whale bones placed on the deep seafloor, suggesting expanding oxygen minimum zones from ocean warming may suppress bone-eating worms and shrink whale-fall habitats and deep-sea biodiversity in the NE Pacific; researchers plan further monitoring at Clayoquot Slope.
The disappearance of the deep-sea 'zombie worm' (Osedax), which feeds on whale bones, may indicate declining oxygen levels in the ocean caused by warming, potentially disrupting important deep-sea ecosystems and leading to species loss.
A new study reveals that bone-eating worms from the genus Osedax have been feeding on marine bones for at least 100 million years, with fossils indicating their presence in the Cretaceous period and showing remarkable evolutionary stability over time.