New Species Discovered On Whale Skeletons

Sam Mann
Physics, Period 8
Science In The News


Death has brought new discoveries of life. When a whale dies and sinks to the seafloor, it becomes food for an entire ecosystem. Nine new species of bristleworm were recently discovered by scientists at the site of whale cadavers on the ocean bed. The bristleworm is a type of earthworm. They are so well adapted and specialized to eating dead whales that they couldn't survive anywhere except where dead whales come to rest. The bristleworms actually use a root system to attach themselves to the whale's bones while they feed on bacteria that quickly form on the whale skeleton.

Whale carcasses are a very unpredictable source of food. Whales are not abundant and knowing when and where one will die is impossible. However, did you know that a whale's carcass offers the same amount of nutrients that normally sink from the surface to the seafloor in 2000 years!? After sharks and hagfish pick the body clean of the meat, various other organisms come to feast on the skeleton.

The discovery of nine new bacteria-eating worm species in the ocean may seem to have little social importance. However, this discovery goes to show that there are many species still unknown to mankind. Scientists are finding new ones everyday but it is predicted that there are millions of species still yet to be discovered. Additionally, these nine new species are nine more species of organisms that are being threatened by global warming and humans. If global warming or over-exploitation of whales eventually causes the whales to become extinct, there goes the nine species of bristleworms with them. Sure, they may just be little worms, but the fact remains that the oceans are a very diverse place and are very fragile. Saving our earth from the current biodiversity crisis doesn't allow for even the smallest of organisms to be overlooked. Did you know that prokaryotes, organisms so small that they don't even have a cell nucleus, are used by people to detoxify the earth from man made chemicals? Even the smallest of organisms can offer environmental services to mankind. The point is that society should be aware of the many different types of species, big and small, that are being overlooked and threatened by our actions.

My personal reaction is that of curiosity and interest for our new worm friends. It is amazing that they have adapted to be able to subsist on the arbitrary and random occurrences of whale carcasses raining down from the upper levels of the oceanic biome. I took a fancy to this article because I am currently taking AP Biology. My summer homework was to read all about the various biomes of Earth and its many, many inhabitants. I learned that these worms are called benthos and they reside in the benthic zone of the ocean. The whale carcass is considered detritus which the bacteria eat, and the bristleworms are primary consumers that eat the bacteria. I will always be keeping an eye out for more of earth's species to be discovered and added to the biodiversity of life on our very special planet.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090921091601.htm