Bone eating ocean worm discovered
30 July 2004
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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Dredging the bottom of oceans for weird creatures certainly can produce some interesting forms of life. This time scientists have found a strange worm like creature munching away on the bones of dead whales. Led by Dr Greg Rouse of University of Adelaide his team also discovered that these unusual worms are not very big and live an unsual life. The males, sometimes upto 100 just live just inside the female. These worms manage to eat bits of bone with the help of bacteria that then pass on some nutrients to the worm. Discovered at 2891 metres below the surface of Monterey Bay in California, these creatures are a new species, but are not very big at only about 0.2-0.5mm across. |
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