A group of scientists led by a man called Nicholas Higgs has discovered a Zombie worm living inside rotting whale bones. Osedax feeds off of bones. Nicholas Higgs discovered tell-tale traces of Osedax in the Mediterranean last year using micro-CT (Computed Tomography) scanning technology as part of his PhD at the University of Leeds and the Natural History Museum. The whale was found because six million years ago when the Mediterranean dried up, ,most of the sea animals where killed and the Whale is one of the remaining fossils found there. Osedax lived in the ocean 3 million years ago and although the Mediterranean was re-colonised from the Atlantic the scientists believe that there must still be loads more in the ocean. Scientists believe that these worms are responsible for the large gap in the fossil records.I think this discovery will change scientists point of view on why there is a huge gap in the fossil record. I find it quite a creepy thought that when I die there might be some kind of bone eating monster coming to eat my remains. But anyway I guess that that is all part of the process of decomposition and we can't change that. Just like a fly, it's not very nice but something has to do it.
MLA Citation: University of Leeds. "'Zombie' worms found in Mediterranean fossil." ScienceDaily, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.
Why do you suppose there is a large gap in the fossil records? Is it because these worms ate the remains of most of the animals? That must mean that the population of the Osedax must have been very large.
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