New Species Of Bone-Eating Marine Worm Discovered

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON — "Two new species of primitive worms that feed off the bones of dead whales have been discovered off the coast of California. The blind worms have no proper stomachs, but employ bacteria to help break down nutrients from the whalebones and feed them into rootlike organs, U.S. and Australian researchers said.

The two new worm species are distantly related to worms found on underwater sea vents deep in the ocean and comprise their own new genus dubbed Osedax, which means "bone-devouring."

The scientists first found female tubeworms, some as long as a person's index finger, rooted into the decaying remains of a young grey whale at the bottom of Monterey Bay, 9,100 feet deep off the coast of California.

The females have an outer tube, an inner muscular trunk, an egg-carrying oviduct and little docking points for the microscopic males, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Females have red or red-and-white striped, feathery, gill-like structures called palps, which carry hemoglobin — the stuff that makes blood red — to capture oxygen from the water."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-07-30/s_26324.asp

[prodigal_green]

1. shhhh...

terrorists will read this scientific information and use it against us. </sarcasm>

[phantom power]

2. convergent evolution?

An animal evolving to fill the niche of a fungus?