Benthic tube worms that consume whale carcasses

First discovered on the deep seafloor of Monterey Bay in 2002, bone-eating worms (Osedax) seem to dine exclusively on the bones of whale carcasses that fall to the ocean floor (so-called whale falls). They are about one inch in length and composed entirely of soft tissue. The adults are exclusively female. The dwarf males (up to 100 at a time) live inside the female and fertilize the eggs before the resulting oocytes are released in masses exceeding 100. The bone-eating worms lack stomachs and mouths. They attach themselves to the whale bones with root-like structures. Acid is then secreted into that section of bone. Symbiotic bacteria residing in the worm consume the proteins and lipids found in the bone, releasing nutrients that the worm can absorb. Since its original discovery, these worms have been found dining on whale falls in all the world’s oceans. It is unclear whether these worms regularly consume other bones found on the seafloor. Experiments have been done exposing them to submerged cow bones, which they colonized, but bone-eating worms have yet to be found on the dead bones of marine animals other than whales. Microscopic examinations of fossilized bones of prehistoric plesiosaur and sea turtles have revealed the same small bore-holes that modern bone-eating worms leave in whale bones. It thus appears that bone-eating worms have a long history (more than 100 million years) and had a wider range of diet that has been shown to date in the modern specimens. The bone-eating worm is a distant cousin to the giant tube worms found alongside deep-sea hydrothermal vents.