The Osedax genus of opportunistic polychaete worms have been around for longer than human existence. They originally evolved to look like flowers in the hope of a cushy existence in florist shops, pretending to be a corsage. Due to the absence of florist shops at the time, they were forced to eke out a more stenuous niche on sea beds, living on whale carcasses. Once the hagfish have finished scraping away the meaty bits, the Osedax worms burrow bum-first into the bones to digest the marrow. Well actually they recruit bacteria to do the hard work of marrow-digestion and pay them fuck-all while claiming the credit for themselves, but this is no more than any other entrepreneur would do.Osedax have also been observed colonizing terrestrial mammal bones mixed in with galley waste from a surface vessel.I look forward to this featuring as a plot device in the next series of Bones.
When other animals complain about the rapid disappearance of the whale carcass, the Osedax explains that "We've got to get away from this idea that somehow we have to protect one-third of bones for a certain constituency and put it in a jar of formaldehyde and leave it."
However, every whale caught by Japanese
Save the bone-eating zombie worms!
(thanks big sister)
12 comments:
Zombie worm or colloquially known as "bone eating snot flower"
It's a classy little thang whatever way one slices the sea cucumber.
"Osedax Mucofloris colonized terrestrial mammal bones with galley waste".
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Wait'll you see what we have for desert!
Zombies, not just for Milwaukee anymore
Is the marine ecology entirely based on whale carcasses?
A combination of whale carcasses and the bodies of prehistoric monsters frozen for millennia in icebergs until thawed out by nuclear testing.
And krakens... don't forget the krakens.
have been around for longer than human existence.
The Old Ones are less glamorous than I imagined.
...terrestrial mammal bones mixed in with galley waste..
OK, I understand the galley waste, but where did the mammal bones come from - clumsy cooks?
Or even clumsier (or perhaps just tremendously adventurous)terrestrial mammals...
Well, the mammal bones came from animals that the sailors traded for salt, with people that they met on their voyages. Here is where it gets really interesting, the salt and penis bone traders had a special language they used based on Latin and Greek. Thus there were a lot of jokes about pay rates in Ancient Greece.
There's lots more explaining to do.
Thus there were a lot of jokes about pay rates in Ancient Greece.
She sure "doubled my salary" hur hur hur...
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