ââ¬ÅZombie wormsââ¬Â have been found in a 3million-year-old whale fossil in Italy.
The millimetre-wide Osedax worms, which means ââ¬Åbone-eatingââ¬Â in Latin, have never been discovered in the Mediterranean.
However, researchers from the Natural History Museum in London found examples of what they believe to be their distinctive bore holes in whale bones held by the University of Florence, BBC Nature reported.
Osedax has only ever previously been found in a fossil in the Pacific off the coast of Washington state in the US and in the Atlantic off Sweden.
The zombie worms are one of scores of organisms which are provided for when whales die.
As soon as the creatures hit the ocean floor in a ââ¬Åwhale fallââ¬Â, an ecosystem begins to develop aimed at releasing the nutrients in the corpse.
Nicholas Higgs, the projectââ¬â¢s lead scientist, searched through bones from the 19th century before bringing a promising specimen back to London and putting it under a micro-CT scanner.
He said: Fossils of worms are really rare. We don't know a lot about their fossil record because they're soft animals, he said.
But, because these particular worms leave characteristic borings, we can trace them.
Unusually, Osedax worms do not have a mouth or intestine but they infiltrate bones with fleshy root tissues to extract food.
They are also known by the colourful name of ââ¬Åbone-eating snot flowersââ¬Â.
The findings are published in the journal Historical Biology.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8859729/Zombie-worms-found-in-whale-fossil.html
The millimetre-wide Osedax worms, which means ââ¬Åbone-eatingââ¬Â in Latin, have never been discovered in the Mediterranean.
However, researchers from the Natural History Museum in London found examples of what they believe to be their distinctive bore holes in whale bones held by the University of Florence, BBC Nature reported.
Osedax has only ever previously been found in a fossil in the Pacific off the coast of Washington state in the US and in the Atlantic off Sweden.
The zombie worms are one of scores of organisms which are provided for when whales die.
As soon as the creatures hit the ocean floor in a ââ¬Åwhale fallââ¬Â, an ecosystem begins to develop aimed at releasing the nutrients in the corpse.
Nicholas Higgs, the projectââ¬â¢s lead scientist, searched through bones from the 19th century before bringing a promising specimen back to London and putting it under a micro-CT scanner.
He said: Fossils of worms are really rare. We don't know a lot about their fossil record because they're soft animals, he said.
But, because these particular worms leave characteristic borings, we can trace them.
Unusually, Osedax worms do not have a mouth or intestine but they infiltrate bones with fleshy root tissues to extract food.
They are also known by the colourful name of ââ¬Åbone-eating snot flowersââ¬Â.
The findings are published in the journal Historical Biology.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8859729/Zombie-worms-found-in-whale-fossil.html
