Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor

Glover, Adrian G.; Wiklund, Helena; Taboada, Sergi; Ávila, Conxita; Cristobo, Javier; Smith, Craig R.; Kemp, Kirsty M.; Jamieson, Alan J.; Dahlgren, Thomas G.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1390

Cited by 53 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This adds to the growing evidence that the Cretaceous was a key period for the evolution of modern chemosynthetic communities [1,24]. The evolution of Osedax has been viewed as an extreme adaptation to deep-sea environments as most species of Osedax have been discovered at bathyal depths, but shallower species have been documented from the Antarctic, Japan and the Northeast Atlantic [25]. Osedax mucofloris has been found at multiple sites from 30 to 125 m depth and is the only species known from the North Atlantic [15].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Bone-eating Osedax worms lived on Mesozoic marine reptile deadfalls

Danise

Higgs

2015

Biol. Lett.

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We report fossil traces of Osedax, a genus of siboglinid annelids that consume the skeletons of sunken vertebrates on the ocean floor, from early-Late Cretaceous (approx. 100 Myr) plesiosaur and sea turtle bones. Although plesiosaurs went extinct at the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (66 Myr), chelonioids survived the event and diversified, and thus provided sustenance for Osedax in the 20 Myr gap preceding the radiation of cetaceans, their main modern food source. This finding shows that marine reptile carcasses, before whales, played a key role in the evolution and dispersal of Osedax and confirms that its generalist ability of colonizing different vertebrate substrates, like fishes and marine birds, besides whale bones, is an ancestral trait. A Cretaceous age for unequivocal Osedax trace fossils also dates back to the Mesozoic the origin of the entire siboglinid family, which includes chemosynthetic tubeworms living at hydrothermal vents and seeps, contrary to phylogenetic estimations of a Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic origin (approx. 50 -100 Myr).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Bone-eating Osedax worms lived on Mesozoic marine reptile deadfalls

Danise

Higgs

2015

Biol. Lett.

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“…There is only evidence for two other Osedax species occurring across a range of depths (Tables 3, 5). Osedax antarcticus has been found from 546-1446 meters (Glover et al 2013;Amon et al 2014), and O. deceptionensis is known from 10-156 meters (Taboada et al 2015).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An inordinate fondness for Osedax (Siboglinidae: Annelida): Fourteen new species of bone worms from California

Rouse

Goffredi

Johnson

et al. 2018

Zootaxa

867

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We incorporate DNA sequences from a comprehensive sampling of taxa to provide an updated phylogeny of Osedax and discuss the remarkable diversity of this clade of siboglinids. We formally describe 14 new species of Osedax from Monterey Bay, California, USA, raising the total number of properly named Osedax species to 25. These new species had formerly been recognized by informal names in various publications, and on GenBank. The descriptions document the occurrence of dwarf males in five of the new species. The distribution for the 19 species of Osedax known to occur in Monterey Bay across depths from 385 to 2898 meters and various bone substrates is documented. The exploitation of extant bird and marine turtle bones by Osedax is reported for the first time.

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“…For example, foraminifera studies have identified how the ocean temperature has changed over the last 125 000 years (Labeyrie et al, 1987). In a similar way, deep-sea environmental conditions are suitable for exceptional preservation of historical cultural artifacts, including ancient Black Sea shipwrecks (Ballard et al, 2001) and potentially much more recent artifacts from polar expeditions (Shackleton's Endurance, Glover et al, 2013).…”

Section: Cultural Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem function and services provided by the deep sea

et al. 2014

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Abstract. The deep sea is often viewed as a vast, dark, remote, and inhospitable environment, yet the deep ocean and seafloor are crucial to our lives through the services that they provide. Our understanding of how the deep sea functions remains limited, but when treated synoptically, a diversity of supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services becomes apparent. The biological pump transports carbon from the atmosphere into deep-ocean water masses that are separated over prolonged periods, reducing the impact of anthropogenic carbon release. Microbial oxidation of methane keeps another potent greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere while trapping carbon in authigenic carbonates. Nutrient regeneration by all faunal size classes provides the elements necessary for fueling surface productivity and fisheries, and microbial processes detoxify a diversity of compounds. Each of these processes occur on a very small scale, yet considering the vast area over which they occur they become important for the global functioning of the ocean. The deep sea also provides a wealth of resources, including fish stocks, enormous bioprospecting potential, and elements and energy reserves that are currently being extracted and will be increasingly important in the near future. Society benefits from the intrigue and mystery, the strange life forms, and the great unknown that has acted as a muse for inspiration and imagination since near the beginning of civilization. While many functions occur on the scale of microns to meters and timescales up to years, the derived services that result are only useful after centuries of integrated activity. This vast dark habitat, which covers the majority of the globe, harbors processes that directly impact humans in a variety of ways; however, the same traits that differentiate it from terrestrial or shallow marine systems also result in a greater need for integrated spatial and temporal understanding as it experiences increased use by society. In this manuscript we aim to provide a foundation for informed conservation and management of the deep sea by summarizing the important role of the deep sea in society.

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Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor

Cited by 53 publications

References 39 publications

Bone-eating Osedax worms lived on Mesozoic marine reptile deadfalls

Bone-eating Osedax worms lived on Mesozoic marine reptile deadfalls

An inordinate fondness for Osedax (Siboglinidae: Annelida): Fourteen new species of bone worms from California

Ecosystem function and services provided by the deep sea

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