Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor

Glover, A.G.; Wiklund, H.; Taboada, S.; Avila, C.; Cristobo, J.; Smith, C.R.; Kemp, K.M.; Jamieson, A.J.; Dahlgren, T.G.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1390

Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor

Glover, A.G.; Wiklund, H.; Taboada, S.; Avila, C.; Cristobo, J.; Smith, C.R.; Kemp, K.M.; Jamieson, A.J.; Dahlgren, T.G. (2013). Bone-eating worms from the Antarctic: the contrasting fate of whale and wood remains on the Southern Ocean seafloor. Proc. - Royal Soc., Biol. Sci. 280(1768): 10 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1390

In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. The Royal Society: London. ISSN 0962-8452; e-ISSN 1471-2954, meer

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VLIZ: Open access 250080 [ download pdf ]

Trefwoorden

Taxa > Species > New taxa > New species
Annelida [WoRMS]; Polychaeta [WoRMS]; Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914 [WoRMS]; Xylophaga W. Turton, 1822 [WoRMS]
Marien/Kust

Author keywords

Osedax antarcticus Osedax deceptionensis whale-fall wood-fall Annelida Polychaeta Siboglinidae Xylophaga

Auteurs		Top
Glover, A.G., meer Wiklund, H. Taboada, S.	Avila, C. Cristobo, J. Smith, C.R.	Kemp, K.M. Jamieson, A.J., meer Dahlgren, T.G.

Abstract

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.

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