Bone-Eating Worms Found In Antarctic Waters 38
sciencehabit writes "When you drop a whale backbone into Antarctic waters and retrieve it a year later, you'll find it covered with a pelt of wriggling, rosy-hued worms. Drop a chunk of wood in the same spot, and you'll discover that it's hardly changed. That's the result of a simple experiment to find out if some of the world's weirdest worms also live in Antarctic waters. The discovery extends the range of bone-eating worms to the Southern Ocean and suggests that Antarctic shipwrecks may be remarkably intact."
Aha! (Score:5, Funny)
When you drop a whale backbone into Antarctic waters and retrieve it a year later, you'll find it covered with a pelt of wriggling, rosy-hued worms
So *this* is the "scientific research" that the Japanese are performing.
Re:Aha! (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they do "research" that is much less scientific.
"I wonder if THIS whale tastes any different to the others we have caught today...."
Re:Aha! (Score:4, Funny)
And is it better with soy sauce or sweet chilli?
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plenty of slashdotters use the sriracha like most americans use ketchup
Re:Aha! (Score:4, Funny)
When you drop a whale backbone into Antarctic waters and retrieve it a year later, you'll find it covered with a pelt of wriggling, rosy-hued worms
So *this* is the "scientific research" that the Japanese are performing.
After Fukushima, one of those little wormies might be the next Gojira.
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I thought the experiment goal was: To see, into how many tins, they can fit a whale ...
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Not surprising (Score:1)
What else is there to do in the Arctic on a weekend. Gnaw on bones, ar stay at home. I wouldn't ve surprised to find out that the scientists had already gnawed the bones first.
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This is the Antarctic, not the Arctic.
As for stuff to do on the weekends, I'm guessing you've not seen many David Attenborough documentaries... because if the photos my friends who've worked there are anything to go by, those doccos are daily life.
The Australian Antarctic base has a pool room and make their own beer & spirits. It's pretty much a big pub, populated by scientists, and if you go outside unprotected in winter you only have minutes to live. (I want to work there so bad.)
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Typical nerd. Any excuse to stay indoors.
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Unspoken (Score:3)
The discovery extends the range of bone-eating worms to the Southern Ocean and suggests that Antarctic shipwrecks may be remarkably intact.
The boats, maybe; but apparently not the crew...
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And so it begins...
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Wouldn't it of been easier ... (Score:2)
And more scientifically valid to just compare known whale skeletons and shipwrecks?
Maybe the wood worms just spread out and find new wood to eat on an annual cycle, or are just really slow to find new wood.
"I put this wood in the ocean for a short time, and no worms ate it" gives you no actual information.
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There's a much simpler answer. It's not even seasonal, the lack of wood in general doesn't foster that type of ecosystem. Once you're above the treeline you're not going to find much if any wood, except that which has either made the trip via humans, or by natural disasters.
Depth, temperature and current more important (Score:4, Insightful)
At any location a few hundred miles out of the coast, the chances of wood ending up there are way too small for any species to rely on that. In general, almost all wood floats. Wooden ship wrecks sink mainly because ships have ballast and metal bits, or the lighter than water parts are eaten by bacteria. It's the same bacteria that eventually will make all thrift wood sink, unless it's washed ashore somewhere. Wood that is heavier than water by itself tends to not end up far from shores anyway.
Given the fact that wood is a rare food source under water regardless of where you are, the question is what the wildlife that causes ship wrecks to decay feasts on when they are lacking historical nautical drama to dine on. Apparently the Antarctic seas aren't providing enough of that to be a sustainable habitat for these creatures. There are plenty of algae available in the higher layers of the Antarctic seas, or they wouldn't be able to sustain the krill population that the whales and fish feed on, but it could very well be that that is the only plant life and no larger plants are growing there. I haven't bothered looking that up, but it sounds to me that this is a much more likely explanation than "lack of trees on land" would be.
Re:Depth, temperature and current more important (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wouldn't it of been easier ... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe the wood worms just spread out and find new wood to eat on an annual cycle, or are just really slow to find new wood.
Where would this wood come from? The tropical rainforests of Antarctica?
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Maybe the wood worms just spread out and find new wood to eat on an annual cycle, or are just really slow to find new wood.
Where would this wood come from? The tropical rainforests of Antarctica?
Shhh.... everyone will want one.
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Maybe the wood worms just spread out and find new wood to eat on an annual cycle, or are just really slow to find new wood.
Where would this wood come from? The tropical rainforests of Antarctica?
Close. The tropical rainforests of Atlantis actually.
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Maybe the wood worms just spread out and find new wood to eat on an annual cycle, or are just really slow to find new wood.
Where would this wood come from? The tropical rainforests of Antarctica?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Land [wikipedia.org]
Pristine and intact. (Score:2, Insightful)
"Just picture famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which sank in 1915 in western Antarctic waters. Its pine and oak hull now lie on the sea floor, most likely pristine and intact, awaiting discovery."
That ship was crushed to pieces in the ice, hardly pristine and intact.
These worms.. (Score:5, Funny)
.. are said to be b-b-b-b-bad to the bone. ;-)
wormpocalypse is upon us (Score:1)
crappy series in 3..2..1
Most terrifying statement ever. (Score:1)
This is research? (Score:2)
I don't really think that it is that novel a discovery that that there are bone eating organisms in a part of the ocean where animals regularly die and discard bone matter. Nor is it particularly odd that there are no wood-eating worms in an area that hasn't had any trees for several million years.
Hopefully there was more than that to their research focus.