Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor.
We report the results from the first experimental study of the fate of whale and wood remains on the Antarctic seafloor. Using a baited free-vehicle lander design, we show that whale-falls in the Antarctic are heavily infested by at least two new species of bone-eating worm, Osedax antarcticus sp. nov. and Osedax deceptionensis sp. nov. In stark contrast, wood remains are remarkably well preserved with the absence of typical wood-eating fauna such as the xylophagainid bivalves. The combined whale-fall and wood-fall experiment provides support to the hypothesis that the Antarctic circumpolar current is a barrier to the larvae of deep-water species that are broadly distributed in other ocean basins. Since humans first started exploring the Antarctic, wood has been deposited on the seafloor in the form of shipwrecks and waste; our data suggest that this anthropogenic wood may be exceptionally well preserved. Alongside the new species descriptions, we conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of Osedax, suggesting the clade is most closely related to the frenulate tubeworms, not the vestimentiferans as previous reported.
Life Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
Adrian G
AG
Glover
Helena
H
Wiklund
Sergio
S
Taboada
Conxita
C
Avila
Javier
J
Cristobo
Craig R
CR
Smith
Kirsty M
KM
Kemp
Alan J
AJ
Jamieson
Thomas G
TG
Dahlgren
D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001842:Bone and Bones; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010802:Phylogeny; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014934:Wood
Annelida; Polychaeta; Siboglinidae; Xylophaga; whale-fall; wood-fall