’Zombie’ worms found in Mediterranean fossil

Traces of bizarre, bone-eating 'zombie' worms have been found on a three million year old fossil whale bone from Tuscany in Italy. It is the first time the genus Osedax has been found in the Mediterranean, and suggests Osedax were widespread throughout the world's oceans 6 million years ago. The new find, published in the journal Historical Biology, confirms what scientists have long suspected - that Osedax were likely responsible for erasing parts of the fossil record by destroying bones before they could become fossils. Worms from the Osedax do not have a mouth or gut but consume the bone by growing root-like tissues, which dissolve the bone as they grow. Lead scientist Nicholas Higgs discovered tell-tale traces of Osedax in the Mediterranean last year using micro-CT (Computed Tomography) scanning technology as part of his PhD at the University of Leeds and the Natural History Museum. He says: "After several promising leads came to a dead end, the scans from the final sample looked different and I knew that I was on to something." Osedax were first discovered alive in 2002 in Monterey Bay, California, where they were living on the bones of a decaying gray whale. Since then, scientists have been curious about how the worms might have affected fossil records, but understanding when Osedax evolved and where they lived in the past has until now remained a problem because actual remains of soft-bodied Osedax do not preserve as fossils.