Fossil traces of the bone-eating worm Osedax in early Oligocene whale bones
Edited by Robert C. Vrijenhoek, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board March 19, 2010 (received for review February 22, 2010)
Abstract
Osedax is a recently discovered group of siboglinid annelids that consume bones on the seafloor and whose evolutionary origins have been linked with Cretaceous marine reptiles or to the post-Cretaceous rise of whales. Here we present whale bones from early Oligocene bathyal sediments exposed in Washington State, which show traces similar to those made by Osedax today. The geologic age of these trace fossils (∼30 million years) coincides with the first major radiation of whales, consistent with the hypothesis of an evolutionary link between Osedax and its main food source, although older fossils should certainly be studied. Osedax has been destroying bones for most of the evolutionary history of whales and the possible significance of this “Osedax effect” in relation to the quality and quantity of their fossils is only now recognized.
Acknowledgments
We thank Eva Vinx (Universität Hamburg) for aid with photography, Bob Vrijenhoek (Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute) for inviting G.W.R. on cruises to collect live Osedax, and Gerardo González-Barba (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur) for identifying fossil shark teeth. We also thank Bob Vrijenhoek and two anonymous reviewers for their efforts to improve the manuscript.
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Published online: April 27, 2010
Published in issue: May 11, 2010
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Acknowledgments
We thank Eva Vinx (Universität Hamburg) for aid with photography, Bob Vrijenhoek (Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute) for inviting G.W.R. on cruises to collect live Osedax, and Gerardo González-Barba (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur) for identifying fossil shark teeth. We also thank Bob Vrijenhoek and two anonymous reviewers for their efforts to improve the manuscript.
Notes
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. R.C.V. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
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Competing Interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Fossil traces of the bone-eating worm Osedax in early Oligocene whale bones, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
107 (19) 8656-8659,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1002014107
(2010).
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