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Bizarre Bone-eating Worms Inhabit Whale Falls
Chuck1318 writes "MSNBC reports the discovery of a species of bone-eating worms that live on whale carcasses on the sea floor. The female worm grows "roots" into the whale bones, which contain bacteria that help the worm digest fats from the bones. The tiny males live inside the female, sometimes over a hundred inside a single female. Whale falls provide important oases of nourishment on the sea floor, somewhat analogous to the communities of life around hydrothermal vents."
There are pictures and a detailed article here
I wondere if these worms can actually live inside live whales, what about the potential for transmition to human carcasses.
These worms may lead to more cures for leukaemia and FOP (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva) a rare genetic disorder in which muscle turns to bone
...discovering one stage of the new worm does not describe its lifecycle.
They have some idea of its lifecycle, though obviously they're just getting started learning about the thing.
The current understanding is that when the eggs hatch, if the resulting worm lands on exposed whale bone, it grows into a female (about the size of your index finger). If it lands on a female worm, it stays tiny and becomes a male, living permanently inside the female and basically just producing sperm. If it lands anywhere else, it eventually dies.