14 DAY TRIAL // A paper published in today's issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B describes two new species of bone-eating worms.
The worms inhabit Antarctic waters, and feast on whale skeletons lying at the bottom of the Southern Ocean.
Nature informs that both these species belong to a genus dubbed Osedax, which translates as “bone devourer.”
Oddly enough, it appears that the females belonging to these species are the ones that actually attach themselves to decaying whale skeletons with the help of root-like structures and start feeding on them.
Males, on the other hand, attach themselves to the females and rely on them for survival.
They are much smaller than the females, and serve no purpose other than helping the latter give birth to a new generation.
The newly discovered species are now known as Osedax antarcticus and Osedax deceptionensis.