Ancient worms eat animal bones

A new study of the mysterious phenomenon involving the ancient worm of Osedax, which carved out the bones of marine species, was published in the Biology Letters section of the Royal Society. Accordingly, the zombie worms have proliferated 100 million years ago.

Haunting ancient "monsters" eating animal bones

The world will admire many fossils of more solid head lizards, if there are no strange ancient worms. That's exactly what a new study of this mysterious phenomenon is, the zombie worm began the process of destroying the bones of sea lizard species 100 million years ago.

Osedax is an interesting and horrifying creature that is easily found in whale carcasses at the bottom of the ocean. They use their tassel roots, spray acid to decompose the bone, and then drill into the whale bone to extract the collagen inside. Because whale bones are their main source of food today, scientists believe that the worms co-developed with whales 45 million years ago.

Mysterious phenomenon of worms zombies eat animal bones

But an article published in the Royal Society, the Biology Letters section, proved another thing. Using radiography to analyze fossils of snake-headed lizards and sea turtles, Plymouth University scientists have found traces of this ancient worm.

The author of this paper, Nicholas Higgs said: ' Our findings show that these zombie worms have not only evolved with whales, but they have also emerged from dinosaurs, ingrained in skeleton of the sea lizard species. Therefore, Osedax has prevented the fossil process, hindering our understanding of aquatic monsters. '

Higgs said that the level of the ' zombie effect' on fossils needs to be carefully evaluated, especially for Cretaceous vertebrate species. Of course, the factors that affect the preservation of fossil data are many, such as climate, geology, etc. But it is still very interesting to think of these bone-eating worms that can direct knowledge. of man about ancient times.