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 Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Scientists Discover Evidence of 30 Million-Year-Old Bone-eating Worms Scientists at University of Kiel, Scripps, find traces of Osedax in fossil whale bones Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego An international team of scientists led by paleontologist Steffen Kiel at the Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel, Germany, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, have found the first fossil boreholes of the worm Osedax inside ancient whale bones on the deep-sea floor. In a research paper published in the current issue of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists conclude that "boneworms" are at least 30 million years old. Boneworms (pictured at right emerging from a bone) have been in existence for at least 30 million years, per evidence provided by traces left in and on bones (left) that match fossilized bones. The fossil bones used in the study belong to ancestors of modern baleen whales and their age was determined using co-occurring index fossils. To produce accurate images of the fossil boreholes, the bones were CT-scanned by the scientists.  A slice of a whale bone with boreholes made by Osedax, or "boneworms." "Food is extremely rare on the vast deep-sea floor and the concurrent appearance of these whales and Osedax shows that even hard whale bones were quickly utilized as a food source," Kiel said. The ancient bones were found by American fossil collector Jim Goedert, who has been collecting fossils along the American Pacific coast for more than 30 years. Kiel and Goedert have conducted several field trips to the U.S. Pacific Coast, a geologically active area where fossil-rich sediments are continuously uplifted by plate tectonic processes. The fossils have now found their final home at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Wash., which also was involved in the current research paper, and at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. # # # Note to broadcast and cable producers: University of California, San Diego provides an on-campus satellite uplink facility for live or pre-recorded television interviews. Please phone or e-mail the media contact listed above to arrange an interview. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. |
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