Rouse, Greg W.; Goffredi, Shana K. (2023). Osedax (Siboglinidae: Annelida) utilizes shark teeth for nutrition. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 103: efirst: 1-6 (16 May 2023).

451025

10.1017/S0025315423000243 [view]

Rouse, Greg W.; Goffredi, Shana K.

2023

103: efirst: 1-6 (16 May 2023)

Publication

World Polychaeta Database (WPolyD).

Available for editors   [request]

We deployed jaws of the common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) on the seafloor at ~1000 m depth off Monterey California for 8 months. The jaws disintegrated, with all the hyaline cartilage disappearing, leaving some fragments of tessellated cartilage and the teeth. Two different Osedax species, O. packardorum and O. talkovici were found to have bored into the roots of some of the teeth, and were using the dentin pulp, which is rich in collagen, as a food source. The enameloid crowns of the shark teeth and the tessellated cartilage showed no signs of Osedax activity. This is the first demonstration of Osedax exploiting a source of food that is not bone. This raises questions as to the original food source of Osedax ‘bone worms'. Examination for the presence of Osedax in the skeletons and teeth of Mesozoic and possibly even Palaeozoic fossil sharks, bony fish and reptiles is warranted.

California quadrant

Abyssal, Deep-Sea
Ecology
Systematics, Taxonomy

Annelida
Polychaeta

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