Osedax mucofloris is one of my all-time favorite sea creatures. Why? Osedax mucofloris literally translates to “bone-eating snot-flower,” which, let’s face it ...

When large marine animals like whales die, they sink down to the seabed. Once their flesh has been stripped away by scavengers and microbes, their corpses are colonized by a variety of specialized ...

A new study led by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is painting a more complete picture of an extraordinary sea worm that makes its living in the depths of the ocean ...

Bone-eating worms, belonging to the genus Osedax, represent a remarkable example of evolutionary adaptation to ephemeral deep-sea habitats. These specialised annelids colonise the bones of beached ...

Osedax worms, or the ‘bone eating’ worms are little soft sacks resembling snotty little flowers. The “bone devourer” is not quite accurate as the worms do not actually feed on the bone mineral, but ...

An international team of scientists led by paleontologist Steffen Kiel at the Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel, Germany, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, have found the ...

In 2002, while out roaming the depths in Monterey Bay Canyon with the remote operated vehicle (ROV) Tiburon, MBARI scientist Robert Vrijenhoek stumbled upon a whale carcass on the ocean floor, and ...

This release is available in German. An international team of scientists led by the paleontologist Steffen Kiel at the University of Kiel, Germany, found the first fossil boreholes of the worm Osedax ...

Four thousand meters beneath the Pacific, where water pressure would crush a human ribcage and sunlight is a distant memory, a remotely operated vehicle steered its cameras toward a rotting whale ...

worms might have had a more-rounded diet 30 million years ago. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are ...