The morphological diversity of Osedax worm borings (Annelida: Siboglinidae). (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Higgs, Nicholas D.; Glover, Adrian G.; Dahlgren, Thomas G.; Smith, Craig R.; Fujiwara, Yoshihiro; Pradillon, Florence; Johnson, Shannon B.; Vrijenhoek, Robert C.; Little, Crispin T.S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Volume 94:Number 7(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1429
• Page End: 1439
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: Biology -- Periodicals; Marine biology -- Periodicals; 578.77
• DOI: 10.1017/S0025315414000770
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0025-3154

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Marine worms in the genus <italic>Osedax</italic>, have specialized 'root' tissues used to bore into the bones of decomposing vertebrate skeletons and obtain nutrition. We investigated the borings of nine <italic>Osedax</italic> species, using micro computed tomography to quantitatively describe the morphology of the borings and provide three-dimensional reconstructions of the space occupied by <italic>Osedax</italic> root tissues inside the bone. Each <italic>Osedax</italic> species displayed a consistent boring morphology in any given bone, but these differed between bones. In bones where multiple species coexisted there was limited evidence for spatial niche partitioning by <italic>Osedax</italic> root tissues inside the bones investigated here. The new morphological data may be applied to <italic>Osedax</italic> traces in fossil bones, showing that borings can be used to indicate minimum species richness in these bones.</p> </abstract>